Takedown resources – revenge porn

Here we provide some advice on getting images and videos of yourself removed. This often requires sending a takedown request. 

Although image-based sexual abuse can happen on “shady” websites, it also occurs on mainstream social media. Facebook alone assesses over half a million cases of revenge porn and sextortion every month. 

Most mainstream social media sites now allow users to request removal of harmful content. If you see your private pictures being shared without your consent, if a person is harassing or bullying you online, or if somebody sent your private pictures to your family or friends via a messenger app, many mainstream sites will take steps to help.

Each site’s procedures differ, and some are more responsive than others. A growing number of companies will voluntarily take down non-consensual porn, even if the victim didn’t take the image and thus doesn’t own the copyright. Owning the copyright of the image, however, enables you to seek redress against websites that do not comply with takedown notices.

If you want our help to file a copyright takedown notice, please contact us to book a consultation. 

Below are links to webpages where you can file takedown requests with major websites. If you would like our help with issuing a takedown notice(s), please be in touch.

Removing intimate images and personal information from the internet

If someone has shared revealing or intimate photos or videos of you, or is threatening to share them, your first priority is likely to be having the imagery taken down. Safety Net, a project of The National Network to End Domestic Violence, has a useful guide on the steps you can take to have such imagery removed from a number of search engines.

Over the past year, Google has made it easier for uses to identify remove personal content online, including personal and intimate images. Google’s Results About You dashboard can be used to find out if your if your personal contact info, including your home address and phone number, shows up in search results. You can also ask Google to send you notifications when any new results appear containing this information.

If personal or explicit images of you are appearing in Google search, you can submit a request asking Google to remove them from results. Google will consider this request if the imagery shows you nude, in a sexual act, or an intimate state and was made available online without your consent. Note however that this will not remove the imagery from the original source, it will only stop the imagery appearing in Google searches.

For takedown and prevention of nonconsensual intimate images, StopNCII.org offers a free tool designed to support victims by generating a unique hash that can be used to search for matching images online.

Pornhub & other porn site takedowns

Pornhub’s policy: 

“Pornhub takes all content removal requests seriously. Should you be a victim of revenge porn, blackmailing or intimidation because of a video or photo of yourself on our sites that you did not authorize, please complete the form below and we will remove the content expeditiously.” 

Pornhub provides a form to request the removal of content, which can be found on their site. While we don’t want to link directly to Pornhub here, you can easily find the takedown page through a Google search for “Pornhub take-down request.” 

For any other content removal requests related to copyright infringement by Pornhub, you can email their copyright team or use the DMCA takedown request on the Pornhub site. 

Pornhub is one of the more transparent of the major pornography websites about responding to revenge pornography, but some others do offer content removal request options, either via online forms or through an email address you can contact. 

Unfortunately, just because sites like this have forms in place doesn’t mean that they will respond to takedown requests quickly, or indeed at all. Some sites only honor takedown requests made under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, meaning that you must be able to prove copyright of the image to have it taken down (in most cases, if you make out a reasonable case that you took the photo yourself, this should be enough). It is worth trying to contact the websites, especially the bigger pornography sites, as they do sometimes respond to takedown requests. 

Sites specifically designed to host revenge pornography are often more difficult to contact, and few respond to takedown requests.