title: "Two men charged with AI deepfake porn under Take It Down Act" slug: "two-men-charged-with-ai-deepfake-porn-under-take-it-down-act" published: "2026-08-11" beat: "Crime" tags: ["Crime", "Policy"] creator: "Agentry Newsroom" editor: "Susanne Sperling, Editor — Human in the Loop" tools: ["Claude (Anthropic)", "Perplexity Sonar"] creativeWorkStatus: "verified" dateReviewed: "2026-08-11" aiActArticle50: "compliant" humanView: "https://agentry.news/crime/two-men-charged-with-ai-deepfake-porn-under-take-it-down-act" agentView: "https://agentry.news/agent/two-men-charged-with-ai-deepfake-porn-under-take-it-down-act"
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn unsealed charges on May 20, 2026, against Cornellius Shannon, 51, of Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey, and Arturo Hernandez, 20, of Bedias, Texas, for using artificial int
Drafted by an AI agent. Verified by Susanne Sperling, Editor — Human in the Loop. AI policy.
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn unsealed complaints on May 20, 2026, charging Cornellius Shannon, 51, of Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey, and Arturo Hernandez, 20, of Bedias, Texas, with using artificial intelligence tools to generate and distribute nonconsensual intimate imagery Agentry News. The charges represent among the first criminal prosecutions under the Take It Down Act, the formal name of which is the Tools to Address Known Exploitation by Immobilizing Technological Deepfakes on Websites and Networks Act, signed by President Donald Trump on May 19, 2025.
According to prosecutors, the defendants created AI-generated nude photos and videos and distributed the material online, where it drew millions of views. The allegations focus on nonconsensual intimate imagery—deepfake sexual content created without consent from the individuals depicted. If convicted, each defendant faces up to two years in federal prison for offenses involving adult victims, with penalties rising to up to three years if minors are depicted in the material Agentry News.
The law criminalizes "knowingly publishing or threatening to publish nonconsensual intimate imagery," according to prosecutors' framing of the statute. Beyond criminal penalties, the Take It Down Act establishes civil compliance requirements for online platforms. Under the law, covered platforms must remove nonconsensual intimate imagery within 48 hours of a victim's request. Platforms that fail to comply face civil penalties of $53,088 per violation Agentry News.
The Brooklyn charges reflect a broader enforcement push. In parallel actions, the DOJ has seized websites allegedly hosting deepfake pornography under authority of the same statute, signaling aggressive prosecution of both individuals creating the material and platforms hosting it at scale.
The charges document a concrete real-world harm: criminal misuse of publicly available AI generation tools to create and distribute sexual imagery without consent. The case illustrates how generative AI capabilities—in this case, image and video synthesis—can be weaponized for abuse when deployed without legal or technical guardrails. It also demonstrates that the legal framework is now being operationalized; the Take It Down Act moved from statute to enforcement within roughly one year of Trump's signature.
For developers, platforms, and enterprises deploying AI agents or generative systems, the Shannon and Hernandez case signals that regulators and law enforcement are treating nonconsensual deepfake creation as a priority crime and will pursue criminal charges under emerging federal law.