If you feel like you or someone you know is in immediate danger, you should call 911 (or your country’s local emergency line) or go to an emergency room to get immediate help. Explain that it is a psychiatric emergency and ask for someone who is trained for these kinds of situations. If you’re struggling with negative thoughts or suicidal feelings, resources are available to help. In the US, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988.
Seeing a deepfaked image or video of yourself online can be a gross invasion of privacy. It can also be illegal and abusive in some cases, such as deepfake porn or nonconsensual sharing of intimate images, including AI-generated content.
The Take It Down Act makes it illegal to create and distribute nonconsensual intimate images, including those edited with generative AI. But AI also makes it easier than ever for abusers to create this illegal and upsetting content.
Deepfakes and intimate images — digitally altered or not — are prohibited by most social media companies. Many platforms, like Instagram and YouTube, offer specific ways to report incidents where your likeness is used without your consent in sexually explicit content. There’s no guarantee that all instances will be removed from the platforms. But using their built-in tools is a good starting point.
These are the main resources offered by each social media platform for reporting deepfakes and other kinds of image-based abuse. Note that these are primarily for people in the US, as reporting mechanisms may differ outside the US.
Additional resources are available at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, a nonprofit that helps survivors of image-based abuse under 18 years old, and StopNCII.org, which helps those over 18.
What to do when you’ve been deepfaked
Step 1: Take care of yourself. Seeing these posts can be upsetting. The national sexual assault hotline, run by RAINN, the US’s largest anti-sexual violence organization, is available 24/7. You can call at 800-656-4673; chat at RAINN.org/hotline; or text “HOPE” to 64673.
Step 2: Before you start reporting posts, you may want to document the posts, if you can do so safely. Screenshots, URLs and timestamps can all be useful if you decide to take legal action in the future against a person or platform that shared the content.
Step 3: File requests with social media platforms to have the content removed. If they are nonconsensual intimate imagery (real or digitally altered), use those specific NCII reporting tools. If there are deepfakes that aren’t sexually explicit, you can report them under harassment and bullying policies for most platforms. (Keep reading for how to do so on the major social media sites.)
Step 4: If reports under those deepfake/bullying policies don’t work, you may be able to issue a takedown request under copyright law. These requests say you’re the copyright owner of a piece of content and did not give permission for it to be shared. If you took any part of the original photo or video, you may be the copyright owner. These are usually called DMCA takedown requests, referring to the law that created the process, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
Step 5: If social media platforms still won’t remove the posts, particularly if they are intimate imagery (real or digitally altered), report them to the Federal Trade Commission. Under the 2025 Take It Down Act, online platforms have 48 hours to remove intimate imagery. If they fail to do so, you can notify the FTC, which can investigate and force the platforms to take action. You can file a complaint online. Here’s our step-by-step guide for help.
Step 6: The above reporting options work if you know a social media post exists. But because of the nature of the internet, you may not always know when intimate content featuring your likeness is being shared. That’s where organizations such as the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and StopNCII.org can help.
StopNCII.org can create a “digital fingerprint” of your intimate content using hashing technology. The nonprofit works with tech companies, including Meta, OnlyFans and PornHub, to scan their platforms, and whenever your digital fingerprint matches a post, the platforms are alerted and asked to remove it. NCMEC’s Take It Down program uses similar technology to help people under 18. But not every tech company is partnered with these two organizations, so it isn’t a silver bullet.
How to report deepfakes and NCII on social media
Here’s a guide broken down by each platform.
How to report on Facebook, Instagram, Threads and Meta AI
Instagram, Facebook and Threads are all owned and operated by Meta. You may have to file separate reports with each platform, but the process is similar.
For nonconsensual intimate imagery on Meta platforms, you can use this reporting form for Meta AI and Facebook and this one for Instagram and Threads. Both ask you to include the URL of the post in question and whether the person in the content is over or under 18 years old. You don’t have to be logged into your Meta accounts to make a report.
You can also report through the mobile apps by tapping the three dots (Facebook) or two lines (Instagram) in the upper right corner of a post, tapping report and then tapping the blue link under “Reporting specific harms.”
You can check out Meta’s policy on reporting NCII content, which says Meta will evaluate reports and remove posts if it finds they violate community guidelines and applicable privacy laws, including the Take It Down Act.
For posts that include your likeness that aren’t sexually explicit, you can report them as violating Meta’s community standards. You can report individual posts in the apps by tapping the three dots (Facebook) or two lines (Instagram) in the upper right corner of a post and selecting report. The options Bullying, harassment or abuse, Adult content or Problem involving someone under 18 are going to be your best starting points. Threats to release nudes or deepfakes count as harassment and bullying. You can also report an account that’s impersonating you or a general privacy violation on Instagram and Threads.
How to report on Google Search and Images
Google recently added a new way to report and request the removal of intimate imagery on Google Images. To do so, click the three vertical dots in the upper-right corner and select Remove result. “It shows a sexual image of me” is the best option for intimate imagery.
For non-intimate images, you may be able to request their removal from Google services, including Images, Search and Maps, through Google’s DMCA takedown process. You can see if you fit that criteria here.
How to report on YouTube
There are a couple of different ways to report NCII content on YouTube. Because it’s prohibited under YouTube’s community guidelines, you can use the normal reporting route: Tap the three dots next to the video, tap report, then pick the best reason why the video should be removed. You can also make a more formal request under YouTube’s Take It Down Act portal. You’ll need the video’s URL and some additional info to make that report.
For posts that impersonate you that aren’t sexually explicit, you can report them under YouTube’s harassment and cyberbullying policy. The “Hateful or abusive content” category may be a good category selection when you report a video. If you’re not sure if the post fits the criteria of harassment, you can file a privacy report.
YouTube offers a unique program for US adults called likeness detection, which uses AI and machine learning to scan YouTube’s entire repository of videos for posts containing your likeness. You can review all the videos it flags and request that YouTube remove them.
How to report on TikTok
TikTok has one main form for reporting child sexual exploitation, nonconsensual intimate imagery and explicit deepfakes, as the company categorizes them. So whether the image is real, digitally altered or entirely AI-generated, you can report it here. You will need to provide an email address, but you don’t need to be logged into your account.
You can also report individual posts, live streams and accounts. To do this, tap and hold on a video, tap Report and then select from the list, which includes sexual content, hate and harassment, cyberbullying and violence or abuse. You can also use this form to report an account impersonating you, and this one to report privacy violations.
How to report on X (Twitter)
On X (formerly Twitter), you can report digitally altered or AI-generated intimate imagery in two different ways. If you have an account, tap the three dots next to a post, tap report and select private or nonconsensual content. Use this form if you don’t have an X account. You can report an account impersonating you on X using this form. To report an X account, go to their profile page, tap the three dots next to their profile picture and tap report.
How to report on Reddit
On Reddit, you can report a thread by tapping the three dots next to a post. From here, you have two main pathways. If you believe the post was digitally altered (like made or changed with AI), select US Take It Down Act. If you think it wasn’t edited, select nonconsensual intimate media.
How to report on Snapchat
On Snapchat, you will need to report the posts before they disappear. You can do this by pressing and holding on a snap or story, tapping Report Snap and selecting from the list. The “They leaked/are threatening to leak my nudes” option is your best starting point.
Snapchat also has a specific form (linked at the very bottom of its general help page) for reporting nonconsensual intimate imagery, where you can provide more detail about the posts.
