The first 24 hours after a leak: what to do, step by step

Finding out that your private photos, videos or paid content are online without your consent is a shock. The first hours matter: content spreads fastest right after it is posted, and every hour without action means more copies to remove later. This guide walks you through what to do, in order.

Hour 0 to 1: stop, breathe, don't engage

If someone is threatening you or asking for money, do not reply, do not pay and do not negotiate. Paying rarely makes content disappear and often leads to more demands. Keep every message, but leave it unanswered.

Don't share the content to show others what happened, and don't download it from the sites where it appears. Every share is another copy.

Hour 1 to 3: record what you see

Write down every link where the content appears. Take screenshots that show the page address and the date. If the content was sent to you or to people you know, keep those messages too. This record makes every report we file stronger.

• The full address of each page, not just the site name
• The username or account that posted it
• The date and time you found it
• Any messages, threats or demands

Hour 3 to 6: hit the platforms first

Every major platform has a dedicated channel for intimate images shared without consent. The report belongs there, not in a general spam queue: these reports go to a dedicated team and are handled with priority. For paid creator content, a copyright takedown notice is usually the fastest route, because you own the content you made. This is exactly where Praivon starts.

Then the copies start. Leaked images tend to come back under new links, so every new upload has to be found and reported again, fast. That is the work we keep doing for you.

Hour 6 to 12: go beyond the platform

Content that sits on smaller sites can be removed through other channels: the company that hosts the site, the registrar that sold its domain name and search engines, which can stop showing the page in results. In the EU, you can also ask any site that handles your personal data to erase it under the GDPR.

Hour 12 to 24: protect yourself and plan for copies

• Secure your accounts: change passwords and turn on two-step login.
• Sharing intimate images without consent is a crime in most European countries. If you are threatened or blackmailed, we take it on: report it to us and we act immediately.
• Tell one person you trust. You don't have to handle this alone.
• Expect copies. Leaked content is often reposted under new links days or weeks later.

After the first day: keep watching

The hardest part of a leak is not the first copy but the tenth. Content gets reposted on forums, leak sites and channels long after the first removal. This is where a service helps: someone keeps searching, files every new request and checks that removed content stays gone.

Leaked content is not permanent. With fast action on every channel, most of it can be taken down.

Praivon does this work for you. We find copies across the major platforms plus thousands of websites across the open web, go after it on every channel, stay on it until it's resolved and handle every copy of the same content with one decision, including copies we find later.