It is on a Telegram channel, in a Snapchat story, on a site you have never heard of, or in a group that someone screenshotted. Speed matters, and so does not making it worse. This is the order I would follow if it were my own material.
Do first
- Save everything. Screenshot every place you have seen it, with the address bar and the date visible. Save the links in a note. You will need them, and things move.
- Do not engage. No comments, no replies, no messages to whoever posted it. Every reaction feeds it, and can be used against you later.
- Do not pay anyone. Not the person who posted it, and not the first service that promises removal within the hour. Both usually make it worse.
- Lock your own doors. Change the password on the account the material came from, turn on two-step verification, and sign out every other device. If you do not know where it came from, do it everywhere.
- Write to one person you trust with the case, and send them what you saved.
Do not
- Do not delete your own accounts. It removes your proof and your ability to report.
- Do not post a public statement yet. Sometimes it is right, but only once the material is coming down, and only if it says what you choose.
- Do not send anyone your passwords. No legitimate practitioner needs them, ever.
If it is on Telegram or Snapchat
Telegram channels mirror each other within minutes, and the removal has its own order, which is in the Telegram note. On Snapchat, a story or a screenshot is reported by pressing and holding on it and tapping Report, and the account through its profile. In both cases, save the link and the screenshot before you report, because the original often vanishes and the copies do not.
If they threaten to post more
Then it is sextortion, and it is handled as one from the first message. Do not pay, do not reply, and read the first hour of a blackmail case before you do anything else. Every Gulf country treats it as a crime, and the official routes are listed by country.
The platform routes
- If you are over 18 in the material, StopNCII.org creates a fingerprint of the images on your own device, so Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Reddit and Snapchat block them before they are posted again. If you were under 18 when they were taken, use Take It Down instead.
- Google removes intimate images and personal details from its results on request, through its removal form, so the material stops being findable even while a host is still deciding.
- Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and X each have a report route for intimate images shared without consent, inside the app, from the post itself. Report the post, not only the account.
What happens next
Platforms have private routes for exactly this, and most of them act on a report that is filed correctly: from the right grounds, with the evidence attached. The copies get reported in the order they are likely to spread. Search engines are handled separately, so the material stops being findable even before the last host acts.
If this is you right now, skip the reading. Write to me with the links and I start while you finish.
