What we have been doing

We read only the public text of these pages — never the images. If you are one of the people named on them, you have not done anything wrong, and there is help below.

Have we seen your username?

We keep a record of websites we have found sharing images without consent. You can ask whether your username appears on any of them.

We will not show you the answer on this page. If we did, anyone could use it to check up on someone else, and we are not willing to build that. If we have seen your username, we will contact you on that account — so only you can see it.

Know of a site sharing images without consent?

You can tell us anonymously. You don't have to say who you are, whether it affects you, or anything about the content — just the address is enough, and we'll take it from there.

Please don't send us images. We never store or look at them, and we don't need them.

If anyone in the images might be under 18, please report it directly to the IWF (UK) or NCMEC (US) as well. They can act on it in ways we can't, and quickly.

Get help now

These are established organisations, independent of us. You do not need us to use any of them, and we would encourage you to go to them first.

• StopNCII.org — stops your images being re-uploaded across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Reddit, Snapchat, Bumble and others. It works from a fingerprint of the image created on your own device — the image itself is never uploaded anywhere.
• Revenge Porn Helpline (UK) — free, confidential support and takedown help for adults.
• CCRI Image Abuse Helpline (US) — free, 24/7, on 1-844-878-2274.
• If you were under 18 when the images were taken, use Take It Down (NCMEC) or report at report.iwf.org.uk. This is treated differently and much more seriously in law.

Is someone threatening to share your photos unless you pay?

That is a crime called sextortion, and it is a different situation to the rest of this page — the images usually have not been posted anywhere yet, so there is nothing to take down, and what helps is different. Do not pay. It happens to men and boys far more than anyone talks about, and it can be stopped.

What we do, and what we never do

• We never download, store or look at anyone's images. Our tools read only the public text of a web page — the words, the links, the page address. Never the pictures.
• We do not keep a list of victims. Usernames are stored as one-way fingerprints that cannot be read or reversed. We cannot browse who is in our records; we can only answer a question about a name someone has given us.
• We report the websites to the companies that host them, register their domains and process their payments — and to the authorities where that is the right route.
• We will never charge you a penny for help, and we will never ask you for images or for your password. Everything here is free and always will be. If anyone demands payment to remove images, do not pay them — that is extortion, and the helplines above deal with it every day.

If we contacted you

We know an unexpected message about this is alarming, and that it looks like the sort of thing a scammer sends. We are not asking you for anything, and you do not have to reply. Everything we would suggest is on this page and can be checked without us.

If you would like us to deal with the websites on your behalf, some of those routes need your permission first — what that means, and the wording.

Supporting this

Machaira is small and self-funded. Donations cover hosting, the domain and the searches that find these sites — nothing more. Help is free and always will be, whether anyone donates or not, and we will never ask someone affected by this to pay for anything.