Feds Convict First Person for Crimes Under ‘Take It Down’ Act
Federal prosecutors secured their first conviction under the Take It Down Act yesterday after an Ohio man pled guilty to crimes including distributing sexually explicit AI deepfakes of women and children.
“We will not tolerate the abhorrent practice of posting and publicizing AI-generated intimate images of real individuals without consent,” U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio Dominick S. Gerace II wrote in a press release following James Strahler II’s guilty plea.
“We are committed to using every tool at our disposal to hold accountable offenders like Strahler, who seek to intimidate and harass others by creating and circulating this disturbing content.”
According to the U.S. attorney’s office, Strahler used AI to terrorize six women and their families between December 2024 and June 2025, when he was arrested. His “campaign of harassment” included sharing sexually explicit photos and videos of his victims — both real and AI-generated — and threatening to sexually assault them.
Strahler also threatened his victims’ mothers. The attorney’s office writes:
[Strahler] messaged the mothers of the adult female [victims] and demanded nude photos of them, threatening to circulate explicit or obscene images he created of their daughters if they did not comply.
The Take It Down Act, which both President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump signed into law in May 2025, criminalizes the three behaviors Strahler used to harm his victims:
- Sharing private, sexually explicit images and videos without permission.
- Sharing sexually explicit digital forgeries, or deepfakes, of real people.
- Sextortion, or threatening to share sexually explicit images and videos.
The Take It Down Act punishes sharing real and AI-generated explicit content with the same penalties, because the consequences of distributing sexually explicit images and videos of a real person don’t diminish when the content is fake.
Strahler faces up to two years in prison for each time he shared intimate content of his victims, and up to 18 months for each time he threatened to do so.
Investigators found hundreds more images and videos containing “morphed CSAM” on his phone.
The Take It Down Act levies harsher penalties against offenders who exploit and sextort children. Strahler can face up to three years in prison for each piece of CSAM he distributed.
“Today marks the first conviction under the Take It Down Act — protecting victims from non-consensual AI-generated sexually explicit images, cyberstalking and threats of violence,” First Lady Melania Trump, who helped shepherd the bill through Congress, posted to X.
“Thank you U.S. Attorney Dominick S. Gerace II for protecting Americans from cybercrimes in this new digital age.”
The Daily Citizen thanks federal prosecutors in Ohio for putting the Take It Down Act to work in service of kids and victims of AI-based sexual abuse. This case creates a blueprint for other districts to begin leveraging powerful legislation against predators.
But the Take It Down Act can’t succeed in isolation, either. Incidents of AI-driven sextortion and leaked deepfakes, in particular, will continue growing beyond law enforcement’s capacity until America regulates how AI companies create and safety test their chatbots.
We live in the digital wild west. Enforcing Take It Down Act is just one step toward civilization.
Additional Articles and Resources:
Zuckerberg, Grok, Messaging Platforms Dominate 2026 Dirty Dozen List
X’s ‘Grok’ Generates Pornographic Images of Real People on Demand
AI Company Releases Sexually-Explicit Chatbot on App Rated Appropriate for 12 Year Olds
First Lady Melania Trump Celebrates House’s Passage of Take it Down Act
First Lady Supports Bill Targeting Deepfakes, Sextortion and Revenge Porn
Teen Boys Falling Prey to Financial Sextortion — Here’s What Parents Can Do
Meta Takes Steps to Prevent Kids From Sexting
Instagram’s Sextortion Safety Measures — Too Little, Too Late?
‘The Dirty Dozen List’ — Corporations Enable and Profit from Sexual Exploitation
Taylor Swift Deepfakes Should Inspire Outrage — But X Isn’t to Blame
