The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office announced the seizure of more than a dozen explicit deepfake websites, marking what is likely the largest takedown of these harmful sites to date.

In its coverage of this development, WIRED spoke to ISD Analyst Leonie Oehmig, who highlighted the significance of this historic takedown.

“The takedowns are a significant win in the fight against synthetic nonconsensual intimate imagery (NCII),” Leonie said. “This shows that meaningful, coordinated enforcement is achievable even where regulation itself remains fragmented across jurisdictions.”

Leonie also highlighted that while the takedowns are encouraging, there are several other harmful components of the deepfake industry.

“Effective intervention needs to target the ecosystem at multiple points, including the tools used for the creation of synthetic NCII, the discovery and promotion of these, the hosting and technical infrastructure that keeps them online, and the payment and affiliate systems that enable operators to monetize them.”

The full article is available on WIRED.