4 things you should do when you're the victim of revenge porn

Rob Kardashian decided on Wednesday to exact revenge on his former fiancée Blac Chyna by publishing nude and explicit images of her on social media. Now the internet is talking about one of the worst risks of our digital lives: so-called revenge porn.

Also known as nonconsensual porn, the act of publishing intimate photos meant to stay private in order to shame or emotionally harm someone is a crime in many states. In Kardashian's case, the posts were ultimately removed from both Instagram and Twitter, and Chyna's lawyer told People that she's considering all "legal remedies."

While Chyna has a high-powered lawyer at her side, most victims of nonconsensual porn don't know how to get such images removed from the internet, when to contact the police, or how to collect preliminary evidence.

Anisha Vora knows this process all too well. In 2012, an ex-boyfriend posted nude images of her online, along with her contact information. Since then, Vora has become a victim advocate and formerly volunteered for the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative (CCRI), a nonprofit advocacy organization that provides resources to people whose images are posted online without their consent. "If you're a good person, you don’t want to believe someone did something bad like this," Vora says. While the shock of betrayal can be hard to shake, Vora recommends focusing on the following four steps to protect your privacy and online reputation.

1. Report the nonconsensual images to the social media platform where they were posted.

You might be tempted to immediately contact the person responsible for posting your intimate images, but Vora advises against reaching out. Your ex, she says, might try to convince you they've been hacked or urge you not to report his behavior to the authorities.

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If you want the images taken down, your best bet is to contact the social media platforms where they were published. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Tumblr, and Twitter all have guidelines for how to report images that violate the platforms' terms of service. Every company uses different language to describe such abuse, so you should include in any written complaint that the images contain nudity and were posted without your consent. For more on what to expect, the CCRI maintains comprehensive instructions on how to file reports with major social media companies and the biggest search engines.

2. Screenshot the images.

Screenshots are a short-term strategy for gathering evidence that you can share with social media companies or the police. In addition to documenting the images themselves, you'll want to screenshot search engine results of your name and any messages or friend requests you've received after the images and your identity were published. Being able to show the negative impact of nonconsensual porn on your reputation and identity can be useful if you want to build a legal case.

Ultimately, your case won't come down to the screenshots themselves, since companies and investigators can collect digital information like a user's account history and the IP address associated with the published images. Yet having the screenshots compiled and printed can be a valuable resource for discussing the case with investigators or a lawyer.

3. File a report with the police.

Dozens of states and Washington, D.C., have laws against nonconsensual pornography. Vora recommends filing a police report regardless of whether it's illegal where you live. In some cases, publishing the images might not be punishable by law, but the behavior involved can qualify as harassment or stalking. The report also creates a paper trail at the outset, and can be useful if you want to file charges or pursue a civil suit.

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Even if you don't want to take legal action at first, Vora says the harassment can escalate to the point where you might need to in the future, particularly if your identity and contact information is disclosed along with the photos. C.A. Goldberg, a New York-based law firm that specializes in nonconsensual porn cases, keeps a list of the state laws here, and you can read more about filing a police report in CCRI's FAQ. Additionally, CCRI maintains a list of lawyers across the country who've volunteered to represent victims pro bono or for a reduced fee.

4. Consider hiring a takedown service to remove your images.

Once images have been posted on social media or to websites, they can quickly spread across the internet, thanks to users who screenshot or download them before the posts have been removed. That can make it exhausting to keep track of where the images appear. While Vora's images first appeared on just three websites, they've since shown up on more than 4,000 sites.

You can try to handle the takedown requests yourself, but that can be time-consuming and occasionally risky. Some porn websites are run by small-time purveyors and you won't necessarily know who you're dealing with. If someone offers to take down the images for a fee, Vora says it's a scam.

She instead recommends using a reputable takedown service, but to first make sure that investigators have collected the data they need to build your case. Takedown services, which track where your images appear and contact the site owners directly, can be costly depending on the extent of tracking you need. Vora estimates that the annual cost can run anywhere from $100 to $1,000. The CCRI recommends DMCA Defender and Copybyte as trustworthy companies.

"Knowing that someone else is handling that, I don’t have to think twice or worry about it," Vora says. "It's such a weight off my shoulders."