Two men have been charged in Brooklyn under the Take It Down Act for using artificial intelligence to generate thousands of pornographic deepfake images and videos without consent.
Cornelius Shannon, 51, and Arturo Hernandez, 20, were arrested in the Eastern District of New York. Their alleged victims include female celebrities, elected officials, and personal acquaintances. The content reportedly collected millions of views online.
Signed into law by President Donald Trump on May 19, 2025, the Take It Down Act was introduced by Senator Ted Cruz to criminalize nonconsensual intimate imagery, including AI-generated content. It also requires tech platforms to establish removal processes for flagged material by May 19, 2026, with the Federal Trade Commission overseeing enforcement.
Shannon and Hernandez operated independently, but both are accused of using generative AI to fabricate realistic pornographic content featuring real people who never consented. These are among the first major prosecutions under the new law. The first conviction occurred in April 2026 against an Ohio man creating AI deepfakes involving minors.
The penalties these defendants face will set early benchmarks for how seriously federal judges treat violations under the Take It Down Act. Platforms hosting user-generated content must now ensure they have compliant takedown processes.