Your content is online without permission
This page is a sequence, not a menu. The first step is the one people skip, and it is the one everything afterwards depends on.
What to do, in the order that works
Save the evidence before anything disappears
Screenshots showing the URL, the account that posted it, and the date. Save the links themselves as text. This is the step people skip, and it is the one that everything afterwards depends on — once a post is deleted, so is the record of who made it.
Report it to the platform hosting it
In the US, covered platforms have had to provide a removal process since May 2026 and to act on a valid report within 48 hours. You do not need an account there to file one.
Create hashes through StopNCII
This fingerprints the image on your own device and shares only the fingerprint, so participating services can find copies you have not seen. The image never leaves your device.
Send a copyright notice where you own the work
If you made the content, you generally hold the copyright, and that is a separate route from the ones above. Some platforms accept these anonymously.
Get help rather than paying a removal company
The organisations above do this without charging you. The FBI's own guidance warns about companies that charge victims — and they tend to find you rather than the other way round.
Expect to repeat it
Copies resurface. That is not a sign you did it wrong. Keeping the evidence file from step one is what makes each round faster than the last.
What the law and the removal tools actually do
take it down removal window
Federal law (the TAKE IT DOWN Act) requires covered platforms to remove a reported non-consensual intimate image, including an AI-generated one, within 48 hours of a valid request.
Last checked Sep 6, 2026 · re-checked every 90 days
civil remedy commercial exception
Separate federal civil law lets someone whose intimate images were shared without consent sue for damages, but that civil remedy carries an exception for commercially produced pornographic content.
The commercial-content exception can narrow who this reaches. Read the source before relying on it for your situation.
Last checked Sep 6, 2026 · re-checked every 90 days
stop ncii hashing is local
StopNCII generates a hash of an image on your own device and never uploads the image itself, so participating platforms can match and remove copies without anyone seeing the original.
Last checked Sep 6, 2026 · re-checked every 90 days
fbi warns against paid removal companies
The FBI warns that some companies offering to remove leaked or extorted images charge a fee and do not guarantee removal — including some that target people who are already being sextorted.
Last checked Sep 6, 2026 · re-checked every 90 days
rainn support resources
RAINN operates a National Sexual Assault Hotline and online resources that can help someone figure out next steps after intimate images are shared without consent.
Last checked Sep 6, 2026 · re-checked every 90 days
What each route can actually reach
Reporting to a platform reaches that platform. Hashing reaches services that participate in the hashing scheme. A copyright notice reaches whoever is hosting the file and is willing to act on one. A legal claim reaches a person, if you can identify them and afford to bring it. None of those is “the internet”, and the honest version of this advice is that you are reducing spread rather than achieving deletion.
That is not a reason to skip any of it. Most people looking for something find it in the first few places, and those are exactly the places these routes reach.
Where to get help
These are the organisations that do this work. We are not one of them, we take nothing for listing them, and none of them needs you to have an account with us. If you are in immediate danger, contact your local emergency number first.
- StopNCII
Creates a fingerprint of an image on your own device and shares only that fingerprint with participating platforms, so they can find matches. The image itself never leaves your device.
It reaches participating services only. It cannot remove anything from the rest of the internet, and it does not claim to.
- Report it to the platform under the TAKE IT DOWN Act
Covered platforms in the US have had to provide a removal process since 19 May 2026, and to remove a valid report — plus copies they know about — within 48 hours. You do not need an account on the platform to file one.
It covers platforms the law reaches. If one does not comply, the FTC takes reports.
- Cyber Civil Rights Initiative
A helpline and a safety centre specifically for image abuse, including what to keep as evidence before anything gets deleted.
- RAINN
A report-and-remove walkthrough for tech-enabled abuse, plus confidential support if you want to talk to a person.
- FBI guidance on sextortion
What to do if someone is threatening to share something unless you pay or send more.
The FBI's own advice warns against companies that charge victims for removal help. If a service found you rather than the other way round, that is the pattern.
- Your rights under federal law
The Department of Justice explains a separate federal civil claim for intimate images shared without consent.
It has limits. Content originally produced commercially is generally excluded unless it was made through force, fraud, misrepresentation or coercion — so whether it applies is fact-specific, and worth asking a lawyer rather than assuming either way.
One thing worth being clear about: nobody can promise to remove something from the whole internet. Anyone who does is selling you something. What these tools can do is reduce how far it spreads and get it off the places most people would find it.
Sources and how we weigh them (5)
When sources disagree we prefer them in this order: an official company or registry filing, then a regulator’s final decision or a government enforcement record, then a court’s own order with its procedural posture intact, then the platform’s current terms, then peer-reviewed research, then investigative reporting. A filed complaint shows a claim was made, not that it is true. An industry survey is not a population estimate. Where no primary source exists, we say so rather than repeating a number from somewhere that earns a commission when you sign up.
- Complying With the Take It Down Act
U.S. Federal Trade Commission · published May 1, 2026 · we checked it Sep 6, 2026
Government enforcement - Sharing of Intimate Images Without Consent: Know Your Rights
U.S. Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women · published Apr 9, 2026 · we checked it Sep 6, 2026
Government enforcement - Sextortion
U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation · we checked it Sep 6, 2026
Government enforcementDirects adult victims to StopNCII and warns against for-profit companies charging victims for removal help.
- StopNCII.org — FAQ / How It Works
StopNCII.org · we checked it Sep 6, 2026
Platform's own termsHashes on the user's device; the image never leaves it. Explicitly cannot remove content from the whole internet.
- Report & Remove Intimate Images, Sexual Deepfakes, & Fake Nudes
RAINN · we checked it Sep 6, 2026
Advocacy or industry surveyAdvocacy or industry survey — not a representative population estimate.