Someone is blackmailing you with pictures: what to do now
Someone is threatening to post images of you unless you pay or obey? You’re not alone and it’s not your fault. It’s a crime, and there are ways to act without paying.
What to do first
- Don’t pay and don’t send anything else: paying rarely stops blackmail, and often makes it worse.
- Stop the conversation, but delete nothing: take screenshots (profile, messages, numbers, demands for money).
- Block the person and report their account to the platform.
- Tell the police and talk to someone you trust. Helplines for your country are on our Urgent help page.
- If images exist: StopNCII.org (if you are an adult) or Take It Down (images from before you turned 18) can block them from being posted on major platforms.
By platform
- Facebook Someone is threatening to share your private photos or messages
- Instagram Someone is blackmailing you with intimate images or messages
- WhatsApp Blackmail or threats on WhatsApp: block and report
- TikTok Sextortion: threats to share intimate images
- X (Twitter) Threat to post your intimate images
- YouTube Threats or blackmail on YouTube
- Snapchat Sextortion: someone threatens to leak your nudes
- Telegram Threats or sextortion on Telegram
- LinkedIn Threats or blackmail: harassment or safety concern form
- Reddit Someone threatens to post your intimate images
- StopNCII.org Someone threatens to share your intimate images: block them in advance
- Take It Down (NCMEC) A minor (or former minor) threatened with their intimate photos
What to avoid
- Don’t carry this alone, and don’t put yourself at risk trying to "sort it out" yourself.
Your remedies by country
- TAKE IT DOWN Act: asking for an intimate image to be removed A US federal law requires online platforms to remove an intimate image posted without your consent, whether real or AI-generated, no later than 48 hours after a valid request. It protects anyone who can be recognised in the image.
- DSA: reporting illegal content to a platform (EU) In the European Union, any service that hosts content (social network, forum, sharing site…) must let you report illegal content online, examine your notice carefully and tell you its decision. It works for any content that breaks the law: intimate images, fake profiles, defamation, personal data…
- Intimate images shared without your consent in France In France, sharing an image or recording of a sexual nature without your consent is a criminal offence, even if you agreed to it being taken or took it yourself. You can ask the platform to remove it, file a police complaint and, if the site does not respond, complain to the CNIL (the French data protection authority).
- Sexual deepfakes: what you can do in France Since May 2024, sharing without your consent a sexual montage, or a sexual image, video or audio made by AI that reproduces your face or voice, has been a criminal offence in France. It does not matter that the content is fake: that is exactly what the law targets.
- Spain: the AEPD Priority Channel for intimate images In Spain, the data protection authority (AEPD) runs a Priority Channel to request the urgent removal of sexual or violent photos, videos or audio posted online without consent. It is separate from a complaint to the police or the prosecutor.
- Under 18 in Spain: if an intimate image of you is shared If you are under 18 and intimate or violent photos, videos or audio of you are posted without your permission, it is not your fault and help exists. In Spain, the data protection authority (AEPD) has a special form for minors to ask for them to be removed.
- When a domain registrar ignores your abuse report: ICANN A .com, .net, .org or other generic-extension site is registered through a “registrar” (a domain name registration company). Its contract with ICANN requires it to receive abuse reports, investigate them and respond appropriately. If it does not, you can complain to ICANN.
- StopNCII: help stop your intimate images being shared StopNCII.org is a free tool that creates a “digital fingerprint” of your intimate images on your phone or computer (a code calculated from the image that lets it be recognised without being seen), without uploading them. Partner platforms use this fingerprint to detect and remove those images.
- Intimate image taken before you were 18: Take It Down Take It Down is a free, anonymous service from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), a US child protection organisation. It helps remove or block, on participating platforms, nude, partially nude or sexual photos or videos of you taken before you were 18. It is never your fault.
- GDPR: asking for your personal data to be erased In the European Union you can ask a website, company or service to erase data about you (photo, name, address, post…) in the cases set out in the GDPR. It must reply within one month, and it is free.
- Right to be forgotten: asking Google or Bing to delist a link In the European Union you can ask a search engine to stop showing, when people search your name, a link to a page about you. This is called “delisting”: the page stays on the original site, but becomes much harder to find.
- DMCA: requesting removal of a photo or video you created The DMCA is a US copyright law. If a photo or video you created (for example a selfie) is posted without your permission on a service subject to US law, you can send a “DMCA notice” asking for it to be removed.
If it doesn’t work
An official form can go unanswered or be wrongly refused. That’s not the end: there are other doors, heavier but effective — the company hosting the site, the company managing its domain name, the laws of your country, the data protection authority. That’s exactly what we do for you, with your agreement.
- Reporting to the platform
- A written request to the site owner
- The domain name registrar
- The hosting company
- Search engines
- The authority or the courts
Common questions
What if they really have the images?
Even then, paying guarantees nothing. Tools like StopNCII block publication on major platforms in advance, and anything that does get posted can be reported and removed.
I’m under 18. What should I do?
Tell a trusted adult and the police right away. Take It Down helps remove images taken before you turned 18. Devuelta does not take paid cases involving minors: we point you to official, free services.
This information helps you use your rights. It doesn’t replace advice from a lawyer.