Intimate Images Shared Without Consent
How to have one removed, and what we do within 48 hours (the TAKE IT DOWN Act).
If a nude, sexual or otherwise intimate photo or video of you is on Whinchat and you did not agree to it being shared, you can ask us to take it down. You do not need an account. This is the process the US TAKE IT DOWN Act requires, and we follow it for everyone, wherever they live.
How to ask
- In the app: press and hold the message (or open the update or live), choose Report, then Intimate image of me shared without consent.
- Without an account: use the form at /takedown.
A request needs four things: your name typed as a signature; enough to find it (a link, the username that posted it, or where you saw it); a statement that you believe in good faith it shows you, or someone you are authorised to act for, and was shared without consent; and a way to reach you (your account, or an email address).
What we do
- A file you report in the app, or link to on the form, is taken out of view as soon as the request arrives, before anyone has looked at it.
- Within 48 hours of a complete request we remove what it describes, and look for exact copies of the same file elsewhere on the service and remove those too.
- An exact copy of a file we removed cannot be uploaded again. Nor can a copy of a removed picture that has been re-saved, resized, recompressed, brightened, mirrored, rotated, lightly cropped or given a plain border: we keep a fingerprint of it (a short code that cannot be turned back into the picture), check every picture uploaded against it, and take down near copies already on the service. A heavily cropped copy, a screenshot with other things around the picture, a collage or a video is not caught automatically — report it the same way.
- We do not tell the person who posted it who asked. Sharing intimate images without consent breaks our Acceptable Use rules and can end the account.
- Removed files are held out of view, not destroyed straight away, so that a request that turns out to be false can be put right. If our staff decide a request was not what it said, they record why.
If the person is under 18
Use Child sexual abuse material instead (see Child Safety) and tell the NCMEC CyberTipline. That route has its own law: the file is preserved and reported.
Misuse
Please only use this for what it describes. A knowingly false request can be unlawful, and repeated false requests can end an account.
What has changed
12 October 2026 · version 2
- What we do — near copies of a removed picture (re-saved, resized, mirrored, rotated, lightly cropped or bordered) are now blocked from upload and taken down too, using a fingerprint of the picture. What is still not caught is listed.
11 October 2026 · version 1
- First published.