If you have found something illegal or abusive on a site, an e-mail or a file that we host, there is a form built for exactly that: report abuse. Every report is read by a person on the team, not by a machine.
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Is someone in immediate danger? Call the police or the emergency services first. This form is not monitored in real time and is not for emergencies.
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What counts as abuse
The form offers a list to choose from, and that list describes the scope better than any definition: pages impersonating others to steal credentials, viruses and malware, spam, scams and fraud, copyright or trade mark infringement, child sexual abuse, intimate images shared without consent, hate, racism and discrimination, violence and terrorism, false identity, and defamation. There is also an open option for anything that fits none of these.
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We can only act on what we host. If the content sits with another provider, the report has to go to them. And this form is not a support channel: if you are a customer and need help with your own service, the route is a support ticket.
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What evidence to attach
A report stands or falls on what is inside it. These four things separate a report that moves from one that sits waiting for you to reply.
| 1 |
The exact address. The address of the page or of the file, not just the name of the site. If it is an e-mail, the address it was sent from.
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| 2 |
What you saw, when, and why it is abusive. In your own words, with enough detail that it can be confirmed without guessing what you meant.
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| 3 |
For e-mail, the full headers. They are what shows the route the message took. Without them it is almost never possible to prove where it came from. Paste them into the description.
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Screenshots or a PDF, if they help show the problem. The page itself states how many files it accepts and at what size.
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Do not send the illegal content itself, or files carrying malware. The address and the description are enough for us to go and look.
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You do have to identify yourself
Yes. Your name and e-mail are required, and they serve two purposes: letting us come back to you about this report, and discouraging false ones. They are not shared with the reported customer, with one exception: in copyright and trade mark reports, the person reported receives the content of the report, your name included, so that they can answer it. That is a rule of defence, not an oversight.
What happens next
| Stage |
What happens |
| Received |
A report number appears on screen the moment you send it. Keep it. |
| Review |
A person reads the report and the evidence. The gravest cases, such as child abuse, intimate images, credential theft pages and malware, jump the queue. |
| Explanation |
Where needed, the report is sent to the customer responsible for the content, who has a deadline to respond. That deadline is published on the report abuse page. |
| Decision |
If the report is confirmed, the content is removed or the service suspended. In serious cases, immediately and without waiting for an explanation. |
We only come back to you if we need more information, and we do not give out details about another customer’s account. That is the part that disappoints most reporters, and it is exactly the rule that would protect you if it were your account on the other side.
Copyright, trade marks and domains
If the report concerns a work or a mark that belongs to you, say which one, where the infringing content is, and how your rights can be verified. If the mark is registered, include the registration number. The full process, including how the reported party can contest it and the deadlines at each step, is in the Copyright Policy linked from the page.
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Disputes over a domain name are not handled here. Who a name belongs to is decided by the body that runs the extension, under its own rules, not by whoever hosts it.
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A deliberately false report harms real people and burns the time of the people who should be dealing with the real ones. The form limits repeat submissions, and a groundless report can simply be set aside.
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Seen something that should not be hosted by us? Tell us.
Report abuse
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