The US Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security have seized the domains CFAKE.com and SOCFAKE.com in the first enforcement action under the TAKE IT DOWN Act, a federal statute enacted in May 2025 that criminalises the publication of non-consensual digitally forged intimate images of identifiable adults when the publication is intended to cause harm or actually harms the depicted person.
The seizures, executed on 11 June 2026 following federal warrants issued by a judge in the District of New Jersey on a finding of probable cause, were coordinated with French and Italian authorities in an international operation that resulted in an arrest in Nice, France on 10 June on French criminal charges alongside cryptocurrency seizures. The investigation was brought to US law enforcement by Italy’s Polizia di Stato Postal and Cybercrime Police. Evidence was shared with French authorities through the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime, with the Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office Cybercrime Section and French gendarmerie conducting parallel proceedings.
The HSI New Jersey Field Office led the US investigation with assistance from HSI Rome, the DHS Cybercrime Lab, the Department of Justice’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section and the DOJ Office of International Affairs. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche confirmed the Department of Justice will vigorously enforce the TAKE IT DOWN Act. DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin described the seizures as the first of many actions against deepfake pornographic websites under the new legislation.
The TAKE IT DOWN Act makes it a federal crime to knowingly publish digital forgeries that depict an identifiable adult in a sexually explicit manner without consent where the content is not a matter of public concern and the publication is intended to cause or does cause harm. The statute, enacted in May 2025, addresses a gap in federal law that previously left non-consensual intimate image victims reliant on a patchwork of state-level legislation and civil remedies.
For technology law practices, online platforms and content hosts, the first enforcement action under the TAKE IT DOWN Act establishes that the DOJ will pursue domain seizure as an immediate remedy rather than waiting for criminal prosecution — a significant procedural point for platform liability and content moderation legal advice.
The Budapest Convention mechanism used to coordinate with French authorities also signals that cross-border deepfake enforcement will increasingly rely on mutual legal assistance treaty frameworks, with direct implications for firms advising clients on international cyber incident response. Law firms advising technology platforms on content moderation obligations will be examining the seizure warrants and the statutory interpretation of harm under the Act as enforcement precedent develops through 2026.