Methodology

1Purpose of this document

This is the standard the Corporation applies to its own work, published so that anyone who receives a report from us can see what it rests on, and anyone who disputes one knows how to do so.

It is adopted and maintained by the Board under Section 2.4 of the Bylaws, which requires that every factual assertion we communicate to a third party be supported by evidence we retain.

2What we do

We examine online services that generate or distribute synthetic intimate imagery. We establish how such a service operates, which company serves its content, which registrar sponsors its domain, and how it is paid.

Where what we find breaches a provider's own published rules or applicable law, we report it to that provider or to the competent authority, citing the rule and offering our evidence.

3What we do not do

We do not act for individual victims. Under section 3(a)(3) of the TAKE IT DOWN Act a removal request must come from the person depicted or someone that person has authorised. We do not submit such requests for anyone we do not represent and do not hold ourselves out as anyone's representative. Section 7 lists the services that can act for you.

We do not assert rights we do not hold. We file no copyright notice in respect of any work in which neither we nor a party we represent holds rights.

We take no payment to target anyone. Neither the Corporation nor anyone acting on its behalf accepts payment, service or any other thing of value in exchange for examining, reporting, or declining to report a particular service or operator.

We do not attach the material itself. Reports identify material by location and describe it. Where a visual record is required we provide captures of the service's own interface — its pricing, its upload flow, the absence of any step at which consent is obtained — with any depicted person obscured. Material that appears to depict a minor is referred to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and to law enforcement, and is never sent to a commercial provider.

We do not exercise these services on photographs of real people. Where a service must be used to establish what it does, we use imagery of ourselves or of people who do not exist.

4Standards we apply

We gather our own evidence and record it at the time it is obtained, with the date and the means by which it was obtained.

We state as fact only what we have verified against the source itself. Where a conclusion rests on inference rather than on evidence we hold, we say so, and we do not name a company on an inference.

Each factual assertion we communicate to a third party is supported by evidence retained in our records. Assertions are distinguished from inferences.

We retain that evidence for not less than three years and provide it to the recipient of a report on request.

5If you believe a report is wrong

Write to the address in section 8 and identify the specific statement you dispute. We re-examine the retained evidence rather than our conclusion, and we reply.

Where a statement proves to be wrong, we write to every recipient of that report, state what was wrong and state the correct position, whether or not the error affected the outcome. We do not amend a statement without telling the people who received it.

6Funding

The Corporation has no external funding. It receives no grants, donations, sponsorship or advertising revenue, and is not paid by anyone for its work. No one is paid for this work and directors serve without compensation. Its costs are met by the people doing the work.

Any director or officer holding an interest in a business engaged in the activities we examine must disclose it and takes no part in any decision concerning that business or its competitors.

If this changes, this section changes with it.

7If imagery of you has been published without your consent

We cannot act for you and we cannot compel a platform to do anything. The following services can, and they are free.

If you were 18 or older when the image was taken — StopNCII.org

Operated by the Revenge Porn Helpline, part of the UK charity SWGfL. Your image is not uploaded: a digital fingerprint is created on your own device, and only that fingerprint is shared with participating companies, which use it to find and remove copies.

https://stopncii.org

If you were under 18 when the image was taken — Take It Down

Operated by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. The file stays on your device, only the fingerprint is sent, and you may remain anonymous.

https://takeitdown.ncmec.org

If a platform ignored your removal request — the FTC

Since 19 May 2026 the Federal Trade Commission enforces the notice and removal duties of the TAKE IT DOWN Act. If a platform ignored your request, or did not remove the material within 48 hours, you can report it.

https://takeitdown.ftc.gov

If you need to speak to someone — United States

The Cyber Civil Rights Initiative Intimate Image Abuse Helpline, listed by the US Department of Justice Office for Victims of Crime among its direct services for crime victims. Free and confidential.

844-878-2274 · https://cybercivilrights.org

The platform itself

Every covered platform is required by law to provide a clear, plain-language way to request removal and to act within 48 hours. Look in the footer, the help centre, or the terms page.

8Contact

Synthetic Media Accountability Project
1500 N Grant Street, #12404, Denver, CO 80203, United States
info@syntheticmediaaccountability.org

Verification of the services listed in section 7

Checked 13 November 2026 against each service's own publisher.

Adopted by the Board of Directors on 13 November 2026.