Arturo Hernandez, 20, and Cornelius Shannon, 51, were arrested in unconnected cases on Wednesday and each faces up to two years in prison. The men are some of the earliest defendants charged under the 2025 Take It Down Act, which criminalizes the publication and spread of non-consensual A.I.-generated deepfakes.
“The defendants used cutting-edge digital technology to create images that degraded and violated victims across the United States,” U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Joseph Nocella said in a Wednesday statement. “This case makes clear that posting deepfake pornography is not a victimless crime.”
The Take It Down Act, is the first major federal law in the U.S. to address A.I.-related harms. Signed into law by President Donald Trump last May, the act makes it a federal crime to knowingly publish or threaten to publish non-consensual intimate imagery, including both real images and A.I.-generated deepfakes, and it mandates platforms remove the material within 48 hours of being notified.
“We must provide victims of online abuse with the legal protections they need when intimate images are shared without their consent, especially now that deepfakes are creating horrifying new opportunities for abuse,” Klobuchar said last February. “These images can ruin lives and reputations, but now that our bipartisan legislation is becoming law, victims will be able to have this material removed from social media platforms and law enforcement can hold perpetrators accountable.”
How big of a problem is A.I. “revenge porn”?
The measure was spurred by the activism of a Texas high schooler, Elliston Berry. In October 2023, Berry, then-14, discovered that a classmate had used A.I. software to make and share a deepfake nude image of her. Berry appealed to Snapchat to remove the images but the social media platform refused for almost a year. Finding limited avenues to seek accountability, Berry and her mother visited Cruz’s office to ask for help.
Berry and Mani aren’t the only victims of deepfake nudes.
Last August, xAI released Grok Imagine, which included a “spicy mode” setting that allowed paying users to prompt the chatbot to generate fake sexual images, including the “undressing” of real people. Grok produced around three million sexualized images, including 23,000 of children, within weeks of the release, according to an analysis by the Center for Countering Digital Hate. xAI has since restricted “spicy mode” to filter out sexually explicit requests.
A number of female celebrities have also spoken out about the distribution of deepfake images of them. Pop star Taylor Swift filed trademark applications in April in an apparent effort to protect her voice and likeness from deepfakes after countless non-consensual A.I.-generated images of her circulated the internet, including sexually explicit images and fake political endorsements.
Hernandez, from Texas, is alleged to have published at least 113 albums of deepfake pornography featuring at least 50 women, including both celebrities and women who are not public figures, since last May. The materials appear to be of real non-explicit images of women that were morphed into sexually explicit images, according to the complaint. These were published on a website where they received nearly a million views. Some of the materials were deepfakes of recent high school graduates, the complaint said.
“This predatory conduct represents a disturbing abuse of technology that inflicts emotional harm on victims, violating their privacy, dignity, and security,” FBI Assistant Director in Charge James C. Barnacle Jr. said in a statement. “The use of this emerging technology to victimize individuals is not innovative—it is criminal and will be pursued with the full force of the law.”
Have there been previous cases under the law?
Strahler had posted more than 700 A.I.-generated pornographic images of both real and animated people to a website dedicated to child sexual abuse, and he had used A.I. software to create sexually explicit images of minor boys from his community and several adult women, according to the Department of Justice. He is awaiting sentencing.
Hence then, the article about two men charged under a i revenge porn law what to know was published today ( ) and is available on Time ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Two Men Charged Under A.I.-Revenge Porn Law: What to Know )
Also on site :
- 2026 ASCO Abstract Highlights: Innovent Biologics' IBI363 (PD-1/IL-2α-bias bispecific fusion protein) Demonstrates Robust Survival Benefits in Long-Term Follow-up of PoC Study in Advanced Immunotherapy-Resistant Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer
- One of the Most Anticipated Romantasy Books of 2026 Doesn’t Even Have a Title Yet — But Being on the List Isn’t Surprising!
- Fire response spotted on Bermar Park in Gates on Thursday evening