Getting help
An image of you is circulating: the order to work through
Written for anyone whose photo has been altered, shared or used as a threat. Which step comes first, which desk to write to, and what to have ready.
Start here
Do not pay, and do not delete the messages. Save every link and a full screenshot first, then ask RainLily’s Ta-DA service to file the take-downs for you: 2375 5322 or [email protected]. If someone is threatening you, or the person shown is under 16, call the police on 999 instead of writing anywhere. The person who made or shared the image is the one committing an offence — not you.
This site reviews the services involved. It holds no images and has no moderator access anywhere, so it cannot remove anything; the desks below can.
What to do now
Six steps, and only the first two are urgent
Steps three to six can run at the same time.
Do not pay
Paying buys nothing except proof that you will pay again. Stop replying, keep the conversation intact, and if money has already changed hands, keep the receipt for the police.
Save the evidence
The full URL of every post, a screenshot showing the address and the time, the account names, and the chat from the first message. Once a post comes down, none of it can be recovered.
Report it where it sits
Report each post and each account separately, choosing the category closest to non-consensual intimate imagery. For a bot or a channel, the route is in reporting an image in a chat.
Let Ta-DA file for you
RainLily staff send removal requests to platforms and hosts for you, so you are not the one arguing with a support queue. Altered and superimposed images are covered.
Block the re-uploads
StopNCII and Take It Down turn the file into a hash on your own device. Ask the service that produced it to delete the original as well: services with a working removal desk.
Report and get support
File with the police through the e-Report Centre, or dial 999 if there is an immediate threat. If personal data was exposed along with the image, the Privacy Commissioner is a separate route.
Before you write to anyone
What to have in front of you
Gathering it once saves repeating the worst part of this at every desk.
The evidence
Collected before a single report goes out, because removal destroys it:
- the full address of every post, copied from the address bar rather than typed from memory;
- a screenshot of each one showing the address and the time on the same screen;
- the account names, handles and channel names involved, including the one that posted first;
- the conversation from its first message, not only the part that frightened you;
- any receipt, if money has already changed hands.
What each desk asks for
They want different things, and none of them wants all of it:
- RainLily Ta-DA: the links to the material and a way to reach you, so staff can file the requests in your place;
- the Police e-Report Centre: the evidence itself, attached to the report as photographs, video or documents;
- the Privacy Commissioner: which personal details were published beside the image, and where;
- StopNCII and Take It Down: the file, which stays on your own device — plus the case number and PIN they issue, which cannot be reissued.
What not to send, and what not to delete
Two mistakes are hard to undo:
- do not attach the image to anyone who has not asked for it in that form — the hashing services never receive it at all;
- do not pay, and do not answer the person making the threat;
- do not delete your own copy or the chat until the reports are filed;
- do not post the account name publicly and ask others to pile on: it moves the picture further.
If you know which service produced the picture, its own document may set a period after which the file is gone from its side — the clauses are compared in what the service that made it keeps. That is separate from the copies already circulating, and it does not wait for you.
Where to start
The first desk depends on age and on where it surfaced
One row will fit; the rest of the list still applies afterwards.
| Your situation | Start with | Then |
|---|---|---|
| You are 16 or over, and it is on a public platform | The platform’s own report tool, then RainLily Ta-DA, whose staff file the take-downs instead of you. | The Police e-Report Centre, and StopNCII to block re-uploads on participating platforms. |
| You are 16 or over, and it arrived in a private chat | The Police. A platform report does not reach a private conversation, and Telegram says as much itself. | Ta-DA for anything that has already been posted anywhere public. |
| Anyone under 16 is shown | The Police, straight away. Ta-DA does not accept cases involving anyone under 16. | The Social Welfare Department and its Family and Child Protective Services Units. |
| The picture was taken when you were under 18 | Take It Down, run by NCMEC, whatever your age is now. | The Police, and Ta-DA as well if you are 16 or over today. |
| Your name, school, workplace or number was published with it | The Privacy Commissioner, who can serve a cessation notice requiring removal. | The Police, and the platform, since the two routes run in parallel. |
| Someone is demanding money or threatening to post | The Police — 999 if the threat is immediate. Do not pay and do not reply. | Keep every message: threatening to publish is an offence on its own, with the same five-year maximum. |
Where to go
Five desks, five different jobs
Contact them in parallel; none replaces the others.
| Desk | What it is for | How to reach it |
|---|---|---|
| RainLily Ta-DA | Take-down requests filed to platforms and hosts for you. Open to all genders, covers deepfakes and superimposed images, and does not accept cases involving anyone under 16. | [email protected]; hotline 2375 5322, Mon–Fri 09:00–22:00, Sat 09:00–13:00. |
| Police e-Report Centre | Reporting the offence, with evidence attached: photos, video and documents up to 50MB. | Police public website, the Hong Kong Police mobile app or a kiosk in a police station; enquiries 2860 2000. Immediate danger: 999. |
| Privacy Commissioner | Doxxing: personal data disclosed with your image. The Commissioner can serve a cessation notice requiring removal. | [email protected]; hotline 3423 6666, Mon–Fri 08:45–12:45 and 13:50–17:40. |
| Anyone under 16 | Ta-DA cannot take the case. Go to the police, and to the Social Welfare Department’s Family and Child Protective Services Units. | Police 999; SWD hotline 2343 2255. |
| Women’s helpline | Someone to talk to while the rest of this runs: support, counselling and referrals. | Hong Kong Federation of Women’s Centres, 2386 6255, Mon–Thu 09:30–11:30, 14:00–16:00, 19:00–21:00; Fri 09:30–11:30 and 14:00–16:00. |
Sources: RainLily’s Ta-DA page, the Police on the e-Report Centre, the Privacy Commissioner on doxxing, the Social Welfare Department on reporting suspected child abuse and the women’s helpline listing. The offence itself: the five-year maximum and who enforces it.
Stopping re-uploads
Hashing, without handing the file to anyone
Your device turns the image into a code; participating platforms match it and block the file.
| Service | Who it is for | How it works | Limits |
|---|---|---|---|
| StopNCII | You are over 18 in the image, you are the person shown and you have the file. Deepfakes and synthetic images of you count. | The hash is made on your device and the image never leaves it. Keep the case number and PIN — they cannot be reissued. | Participating platforms only; a cropped or filtered copy may not match the hash. |
| Take It Down | The image was taken when you were under 18, even if you are an adult now. Run by NCMEC. | Also hashes on your device; free and usable anonymously. | Participating platforms only. |
Conditions are set out in the StopNCII FAQ and on Take It Down. If the original photograph came off a phone, check what stayed behind in what an app keeps on your phone.
Questions
While you are waiting for a reply
Answers follow what each desk publishes.
The image is fake. Does that weaken the case?
No, and you do not have to prove it is fake first. Ta-DA takes altered and superimposed images, StopNCII accepts a synthetic image of you, and the offence here covers an image “altered to appear to show” an intimate part. Say it is manipulated and move on. If a desk asks how it was produced, the answer is a detect-mask-repaint pipeline and nothing more exotic — how an altered picture is put together.
Can you get it removed for me?
No. We hold nothing, have no moderator access anywhere and are not a help line, which is why this page is a list of desks rather than a form. What we do with such letters: how we handle removal questions.
How long does a removal take?
Nobody publishes a fixed time, and Ta-DA says plainly that it cannot promise removal: in its first year it handled 309 reported links and had over 80% removed. Where a service still holds the original, ask it directly — the removal desk of each website.
Hotline hours change and desks move. If a number here is wrong, tell us: writing to the editor instead needs one line and no attachment.