Updated October 2026: We corrected our description of federal law to explain the federal civil claim for victims under 15 U.S.C. § 6851 (2022) and the TAKE IT DOWN Act (2025), which made publishing nonconsensual intimate images, including AI-generated fakes, a federal crime and requires platforms to remove them within 48 hours of a valid request.
Revenge porn, the non-consensual distribution of intimate images, is one of the most devastating forms of online harassment. A single post can damage careers, destroy relationships, and inflict profound psychological harm. If you are a victim of revenge porn, legal remedies exist that can help you remove the content, identify and pursue the person responsible, and hold them accountable under both civil and criminal law. Revision Legal’s Internet attorneys have handled revenge porn cases and can help you protect yourself.
What Is Revenge Porn?
Revenge porn (more precisely termed non-consensual pornography) refers to the distribution of sexually explicit images or videos of a person without their consent. It is most commonly perpetrated by former romantic partners, though it can also be carried out by hackers, acquaintances, or strangers who obtain intimate content through theft, deception, or unauthorized access to devices or cloud storage. Increasingly, it also includes AI-generated or digitally altered images that falsely depict a real, identifiable person in an intimate or sexually explicit way.
Websites like submityourex.com and ugotposted.com built their business models around hosting this content, often charging victims a fee to have their images removed, an arrangement that constitutes extortion in most jurisdictions. Although many of these early sites have shut down under legal pressure, non-consensual pornography continues to spread through social media platforms, anonymous image boards, private messaging applications, and countless websites that exist beyond the reach of platform moderation.
State Revenge Porn Laws
Nearly every U.S. state has now enacted a specific criminal statute targeting non-consensual pornography. These laws vary in their definitions, penalties, and required elements, but most share a common structure: criminalizing the intentional disclosure of sexually explicit images of an identifiable person without consent and with intent to harm, harass, or embarrass. Michigan made the nonconsensual dissemination of sexually explicit images a crime in 2016 (MCL 750.145e and 750.145f).
Federal Revenge Porn Laws
Until recently, federal law offered victims very little. That has changed. Earlier proposals, such as the SHIELD Act (Stopping Harmful Image Exploitation and Limiting Distribution Act), were introduced in Congress but did not become law as standalone bills. Instead, victims now have two federal tools that Congress enacted in 2022 and 2025.
A federal civil claim (2022). The Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization Act of 2022 created a federal civil cause of action, codified at 15 U.S.C. § 6851, for a person whose intimate images are disclosed without consent. A victim can sue the person who disclosed the images if that person knew, or recklessly disregarded, that the victim did not consent. The statute makes clear that consenting to the creation of an image, or sharing it privately with someone, is not consent to its further distribution. A court may award actual damages or liquidated damages of $150,000, plus attorney fees and costs, and may order the defendant to stop displaying or disclosing the images. Courts may also allow a victim to proceed under a pseudonym to protect their privacy.
The TAKE IT DOWN Act (2025). On May 19, 2025, the TAKE IT DOWN Act was signed into law. It makes it a federal crime to knowingly publish nonconsensual intimate images of an identifiable person, including AI-generated “digital forgeries,” and to threaten to do so. It also requires covered online platforms to create a process for victims to request removal and to take the content down within 48 hours of a valid request. Platforms were required to have that process in place by May 19, 2026.
Federal law is particularly relevant when the perpetrator is in a different state from the victim, when the conduct crosses state lines, or when the images are hosted on a large platform that operates nationwide.
Civil Legal Remedies
Beyond criminal prosecution, victims have several civil causes of action available to them, including the federal claim under 15 U.S.C. § 6851 described above and the following:
Copyright Infringement
If you took the intimate photographs or videos yourself, using your own phone or camera, you own the copyright. Under 17 U.S.C. § 106, only the copyright holder has the right to reproduce, distribute, or publicly display the work. Posting your intimate images without your authorization is copyright infringement. This theory provides a powerful tool because it (1) allows you to send DMCA takedown notices requiring platforms to remove the content quickly, and (2) creates a copyright infringement claim against the person who posted the images. If the work was registered in time, that claim can carry statutory damages between $750 and $30,000 per work, or up to $150,000 for willful infringement.
Invasion of Privacy
Several common law and statutory invasion of privacy theories apply to revenge porn scenarios. The intrusion upon seclusion tort covers unauthorized access to private information. Public disclosure of private facts covers the posting of private information, including intimate images, that a reasonable person would find highly offensive. Many states have also codified these common law torts in digital privacy statutes that provide additional remedies.
Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress
The intentional or reckless infliction of emotional distress by extreme and outrageous conduct is actionable under the common law of most states. Posting intimate images of a former partner with the intent to harm them is exactly the kind of conduct courts have found to satisfy this element.
Extortion
When websites or individuals demand payment to remove intimate images, as many revenge porn sites did, that conduct constitutes extortion under both state and federal law. Victims who have been extorted can report this conduct to law enforcement and pursue civil claims for damages arising from the extortionate demands.
The Section 230 Challenge
Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act provides broad immunity to online platforms for content posted by third-party users. This immunity has historically made it difficult to hold websites liable for hosting revenge porn. FOSTA-SESTA, enacted in 2018, carved out an exception to Section 230 immunity for platforms that facilitate sex trafficking, and some states have enacted statutes that impose direct liability on platforms that refuse to remove content upon notice.
The TAKE IT DOWN Act changes the practical picture for victims. Section 230 still generally protects platforms from damages claims based on what their users post, but covered platforms are now legally required to remove nonconsensual intimate images within 48 hours of a valid removal request and to make reasonable efforts to remove known identical copies. The Federal Trade Commission enforces those requirements. Said another way, a victim no longer has to rely on a platform’s goodwill or its own content policy to get images taken down.
What to Do If You Are a Victim
Preserve all evidence immediately: screenshots of the posts, URLs, usernames, and any communications from the person who posted the content. Do not ask the perpetrator to remove the content; doing so may alert them to take additional steps and will not produce reliable results. Contact law enforcement and document any criminal conduct. Submit removal requests to each platform hosting the images, using the platform’s TAKE IT DOWN Act removal process where one is available, and file DMCA takedown notices with the hosting platforms if you own the copyright. Then contact an Internet attorney who can assess your full range of legal remedies, including a federal civil claim, and help you move quickly to minimize further harm.
Revision Legal’s Internet attorneys handle revenge porn cases with sensitivity, urgency, and legal precision. Contact us today for a confidential consultation.
Related reading: Revenge Porn: Victims Can Sue, Perpetrators Can Go to Jail and Revenge Porn: Victims’ Rights and Legal Options.
