FAQ

NCII is the act of sharing intimate images or videos of someone, either on or offline, without their consent. This can include manipulated images/deepfakes.

Intimate images are images and videos of people who are naked, or in underwear, showing their genitals, engaging in sexual activity or poses. You can learn more about intimate image abuse here.

NCII is increasingly being recognised as a crime in different parts of the world. You may want to reach out to someone qualified to give you legal advice https://revengepornhelpline.org.uk/how-can-we-help/if-we-can-t-help-who-can/help-for-victims-outside-the-uk/.

Any adult can be a victim of intimate image abuse, regardless of their gender and sexuality. If the image is of someone under the age of 18 – even if it is of yourself and you are now over 18 – please submit to TakeItDown.

We recommend that you create a case within StopNCII.org to protect your images and reach out to a local support service for advice and support.

Regardless of who else is in the image, if you are in an intimate image and it is shared without your consent, this is NCII and you can hash this image.

If your intimate images have already been shared online, your first step should be to try and report them to the platforms. You can also add them to StopNCII.org for future protection.

If we have not covered your question, please do get in touch with our team at stopncii@swgfl.org.uk and we will try to add this into our FAQs in the future. We are not able to recover any case numbers, PINs or remove any hashes, and any requests of this nature will not get a response.

Note that this email is not a support email and cannot offer any additional support for removing/reporting. If you feel you need additional support refer to our support page.

The tool works by generating a hash from your intimate image(s)/video(s). Image hashing is the process of using an algorithm to assign a unique hash value to an image. Duplicate copies of the image all have the exact same hash value. For this reason, it is sometimes referred to as a ‘digital fingerprint’. StopNCII.org then shares the hash with participating companies so they can help detect and remove the images from being shared online.

A digital fingerprint – or a hash as it is technically known – is like a barcode that is attached to an image/video when put through our technology. The hash is then stored in the StopNCII.org bank and shared with partner platforms. Hashes are then compared to every image uploaded to a partner platform and if it matches, the image is removed. Algorithms we use are PDQ for photos and MD5 for videos. They are open-sourced and are industry standard for applications like ours.

You can access the dashboard to see the status of your case, where you can see if the image has been blocked. You may need to wait 3-5 days to see any updates. 

Once you've created your hash and submitted it to the StopNCII.org bank it will be sent out to participating companies’ platforms. If someone tries to upload a matching image, the platforms will review the content to check if it violates their policies and take action accordingly. The hashes will be shared with new partners as they join StopNCII.org.

No-one else will see your images when the hash is generated, the images will not leave your device. If someone tries to upload a matching image on one of our participating companies’ platforms, they will review the content on their platform to check if it violates their policies and take action accordingly.

Unfortunately, this is not recoverable in any way, so please keep this information safe. If you lose your case number or PIN you will not be able to check your case status or withdraw your hashes. We cannot help you reset your PIN or retrieve your case number, since we do not save that information. During the submission process, you can choose to have your case number sent to you using a system generated email. For your privacy and safety, we will not store your email address if you do this.

We want to keep the amount of data you need to share minimal, so we don’t ask, or need, your email address to create a case. All you need to do is hash your images and keep hold of your PIN and case number. This way, minimal personally identifying information (only what we really need to run this service) is stored by us.

StopNCII.org uses image matching technologies that have been widely used by the tech industry to detect exact matches of previously known violating content from being reshared to prevent harm on their platforms. If an image that has been hashed is edited through cropping, filters added or a video clipped, the original hash may not recognise the image. The new image will need to be hashed separately.

Images and video should be in jpeg, jpg, png, gif, psd, tiff, xcf, tga, miff, ico, dcm, xpm, pcx, bmp, mp4, mov, avi, qt and wmv. Videos that are bigger may need to be edited to smaller sizes and hashed individually. The maximum number of hashes that can be uploaded at one time is 20, which is to minimise the impact on processing of individual devices.

Common reasons why your hash may have failed include: Your image may not have been the correct format. If you tried submitting a video, the file size might be too large for your browser to support this process. Alternatively, there may have been a technical error: please email any errors to stopncii@swgfl.org.uk

The original image will work best, but if you only have a screenshot you can use that. Before your submission, just remember to remove anything around the image (e.g. any borders) without cropping the image itself.

Videos and images use different hash formats, as each video usually has a picture thumbnail with it. We suggest you take a few screenshots of the video, and hash these images alongside your videos.

No. Your images will never leave your device and they will never be saved by us. We will only store the digital fingerprints, also known as hashes. Our partners will only be able to access hashes to match against images uploaded to their platforms.

Your hash is created immediately, if it is matched, the platforms will moderate the content.

No. You’ll need to start a new case.

No. Once the hash is created, you can delete the image from your device if you wish and the hash will stay. Like a lasting fingerprint, it will find the image if the match has been made on participating platforms.

If the 'deepfake' or synthetic image is of you, you have access to the image and it is nude/semi nude, then you can hash it. We include these images in the definition of NCII.

Yes, if you have access to the content you can create a case, if you only have screen shots crop them as much as you can. However this may not protect from a video being shared.

Yes, you can withdraw your case at any time. Go to your Case Status page and select the ‘Withdraw‘ button. In order to access Case Status, you will need your case number and PIN which were created during submission. Clicking Withdraw will remove the whole case. While you have the ability to withdraw, please be aware that participating companies reserve the right to continue enforcing their policies once they’ve acquired knowledge of the hash.

Explainer Video

Current participants include Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Reddit, OnlyFans, Threads, Snap, Niantic, Playhouse, Redgifs and Aylo adult sites, including Pornhub, YouPorn, Redtube, Tube8, Thumbzilla, PornMD. We are constantly looking at expanding our list of partners.

StopNCII stores no data, only the hashes. No personal data is kept or stored, so it is important to keep your PIN and Case Number safe. For more information see our privacy policy here.

We can only accept hashes that meet the criteria outlined above. However, we understand that other sorts of images can cause problems: please see Resources and Support for more information or speak to one of our partners in your own country who will be able to support you further, more information here.

No. StopNCII.org only works on public facing platforms, posts, stories and videos e.t.c. Most messaging platforms use encryption which means hashing technologies do not apply.

No, StopNCII.org works only with participating platforms listed on our partners page. We are always looking to work with more online platforms to expand the reach of StopNCII.org.

Only submit the image that you would like to be removed from our partner platforms - for example, if you need an edited image to be removed, please just submit that.

You can find services offering support here.

If your intimate images have already been shared online, your first step should be to try and report them to the platforms. You can also add them to StopNCII.org for future protection.

You need to meet the following criteria in order to use this tool:

• If the image is of you and you have access to the image.
• If the image is intimate in nature (nude or sexual).
• If you are over 18 years old in the image.

No you can’t. We can only accept hashes from you if you are the person in the content. Please safely encourage the person in the image (if you know them) to start the process themselves, or if they struggle with the process please reach out to one of the support services listed here https://stopncii.org/partners/global-network-of-partners/ for more support.

No, you can be anywhere in the world.

The law around nude or sexual images of children is very different to that of adults in most of the world. For this reason, if you are under 18 in the images and videos, you can get help from TakeItDown. Please see Resources and Support for more information.

SWGfL (www.swgfl.org.uk) is a charitable trust, with an international reputation working to ensure that everyone can benefit from technology, free from harm. Over 22 years old, the charity is responsible for award winning services, resources and campaigns as well as operating three Helplines that each support victims of differing online harms. It works with various Government Departments both at home and abroad and has addressed conferences across Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Africa. SWGfL, alongside partners Childnet and Internet Watch Foundation, lead the UK Safer Internet Centre.

StopNCII.org is a tool developed by Meta and non-profit charity, SWGfL. The tool is not affiliated with any Government organisation, only working with participating social media platforms and our global network of NGOs.

StopNCII.org does not work with the police to report content, however our global network of partners can provide support to help you to take further action if needed.