Take It Down

What Take It Down does

Take It Down is a free, anonymous, non-commercial service operated by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia. The service is built for individuals who were under 18 when nude, partially nude, or sexually explicit images or videos of them were created and who believe that content has been or may be shared online, and it also remains available to adults whose images were originally captured as minors. It works by generating a unique digital fingerprint (a perceptual hash value) of the image or video directly on the user's device so the original media is never uploaded; only the hash is transmitted to a secure list maintained by NCMEC.

That hash list is shared with participating online platforms, which scan their public or unencrypted services to detect and remove matching content. Meta integrated this capability through Facebook and Instagram at launch and announced its participation on February 27, 2023; additional platforms participate via a public roster. The service is offered globally in 30+ languages, with no fee, no account-level identification, and referral pathways through NCMEC's CyberTipline and victim-support network. The submission flow is exposed via a self-serve web platform (takeitdown.ncmec.org and tidsubmit.ncmec.org) rather than an app or public API.

Take It Down generates no revenue from users. Funding flows through NCMEC's organizational resources and technology platform partnerships, and the entity has no external equity investors. The go-to-market is community-led and self-serve: awareness is driven by Meta surfaces, NCMEC's child-protection network, multilingual web discoverability, and organic search. Geographic restrictions are explicit and material: the hash-matching technology does not operate on encrypted platforms or services, which caps a portion of the removable content.

Name

Take It Down

Legal name

National Center for Missing & Exploited Children

Website

https://takeitdown.ncmec.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2023

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

Take It Down is a free, anonymous NCMEC service that helps minors and former minors remove non-consensual intimate images by sharing device-generated hashes with participating platforms for cross-platform detection and takedown.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Online Safety / Child Protection Platform

NAICS

Information (51)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

Child Safety & Exploitation Prevention Operations (CSAM detection workflows, escalation) (BPAAALAK)

akta.pro secondary industry

Data Masking, Tokenization & De-identification (HDADAFAI)

Keywords

• Image removal service
• Child safety platform
• Privacy-preserving hashing
• Non-consensual content removal
• CSAM prevention service

Headquarters

HQ city

Alexandria

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Free Service (Non-Profit): Take It Down is a completely free service provided by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), a non-profit organization. There is no revenue generation from users. The service is funded through NCMEC's organizational resources and partnerships with technology platforms.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

Take It Down is a free, anonymous web service that helps minors (and adults whose images were taken when they were minors) remove or stop the online sharing of nude, partially nude, or sexually explicit images or videos. The platform generates unique hash values (digital fingerprints) of explicit media locally on the user's device without uploading the original files; those hashes are then shared with participating online platforms to detect and remove matching copies from public or unencrypted services.

Product overview

Take It Down is a single unified service provided by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC). The core product is the Take It Down platform (accessible at takeitdown.ncmec.org), which uses hash-based technology to match explicit content. Users submit hash values of their images/videos through a secure submission portal (tidsubmit.ncmec.org), and NCMEC shares these hashes with participating online platforms for detection and removal. The service is completely free, anonymous, and operates without collecting identifiable information.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Take It Down Platform A free, anonymous self-serve web service for minors (and adults whose images were taken as minors) that generates local hash values of nude, partially nude, or sexually explicit images/videos on the user's device and shares those hashes with participating online platforms to detect and remove matching copies from public or unencrypted services. Operated by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

Named customers1 record

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration3 records

AI capability3 records

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• Meta (Facebook and Instagram)coreGTM or Marketing Partner · 27 February 2023Meta announced its participation in the Take It Down platform, developed in partnership with NCMEC. Through Facebook and Instagram, Meta brings awareness to the service and integrates hash-matching technology to proactively search for and remove non-consensual intimate images of minors across its platforms.
• Participating Online PlatformscoreTechnology or Integration · 27 February 2023Online platforms that have agreed to participate in Take It Down by scanning their public or unencrypted services for hash values of explicit content. When a match is detected, platforms take action to limit the spread of the content. A list of participating companies is available on the Take It Down participants page.
• National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerNCMEC developed and operates the Take It Down platform in partnership with technology companies. NCMEC maintains the secure hash list and coordinates with participating platforms to detect and remove explicit content. NCMEC also operates the CyberTipline for additional reporting and support.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• StopNCII: StopNCII (operated by SWGfL) is a free, hash-based service that lets adults prevent the non-consensual sharing of intimate images. It uses the same privacy-preserving perceptual hashing architecture as Take It Down, making it the closest functional peer; Take It Down explicitly directs adult users to StopNCII, indicating complementary not competing roles.

Regional players

• Internet Watch Foundation (IWF): The IWF is the UK-based reporting and content removal body for child sexual abuse imagery, operating a hash list shared with platforms globally. It functions as both a reporting hotline and a technical counterpart to Take It Down, focused on UK/EU jurisdictions and providing platform-facing removal services.
• Project Protect (Canadian Centre for Child Protection): Project Protect, operated by the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, includes a hash-based child safety initiative comparable to Take It Down. It is the most direct international equivalent for the Canadian market, addressing the same problem with similar technology but operating under a different jurisdictional framework.

Others

• Childhelp: Childhelp is a US nonprofit providing crisis intervention and support services for abused children, operating hotlines and prevention programs. It is adjacent rather than competitive, but addresses overlapping victim populations and shares a nonprofit child-protection mandate.
• NCMEC CyberTipline: NCMEC's CyberTipline is the US national reporting hotline for online child sexual exploitation, run by the same organization that operates Take It Down. It is a complementary reporting channel rather than a competing service, and Take It Down funnels more complex cases into the CyberTipline.

Emerging players

• NetClean: NetClean provides hash-based detection software used by law enforcement and enterprises to identify known CSAM on endpoints and networks. While its customer base (corporate IT, police) differs from Take It Down's consumer focus, it operates in the same hash-based detection technology stack.
• Thorn: Thorn is a nonprofit that builds technology to combat child sexual abuse, including hash-based detection tools used by platforms and law enforcement. It overlaps with Take It Down on the CSAM detection mission and shares a similar nonprofit, technology-driven approach, though Thorn focuses more on platform tooling than direct user-facing services.

Broad incumbents

• PhotoDNA (Microsoft): PhotoDNA is Microsoft's perceptual hashing technology for detecting known CSAM images, widely adopted by major platforms including Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit. It addresses the same hash-based detection problem Take It Down targets but operates as licensed platform infrastructure rather than a direct user-facing service.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors1 record

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Take It Down