AWDTSG and Tea posts: what takedowns actually work, what does not, and when each matters
There is a specific kind of conversation we have every week now. It is with one of two people: a woman whose ex found out she posted about him in an "Are We Dating The Same Guy" Facebook group, and now her intimate photos are showing up on Telegram. Or a man whose face was posted in an AWDTSG or Tea screenshot, and now his photos are spreading to extortion sites and catfish accounts he has never heard of.
Both situations are real. Both need help. And the most important thing to understand before you pay anyone for help is that they need different help.
This post is the honest scope clarification we wish more people had before they spent $5,000 on the wrong tool.
What you cannot do: take down the original post
The most common request we turn away is "can you remove my AWDTSG post" or "can you delete the Tea screenshot of me." We cannot, and neither can any other takedown service that is being honest with you.
The original post in an AWDTSG Facebook group, or on the Tea app, or in any similar dating-warning forum, is generally protected speech. It is allegations and commentary, not infringing content. The legal mechanisms takedown services use (DMCA, hosting provider escalation, payment processor pressure) all rely on the content being illegal in some specific way. Non-consensual intimate imagery is illegal. Copyright infringement is illegal. Defamatory speech CAN be illegal, but proving it is a court case, not a takedown.
Here is what does not work, even when people sell it as a "solution":
DMCA takedown of the post. A DMCA notice claims someone is infringing your copyright. An AWDTSG post quoting screenshots of your dating profile is not copyright infringement of your work, because you do not own the copyright on a Bumble screenshot. Even if the post includes photos of you, those were either uploaded by the poster (who has a colorable defense) or were public on your dating profile (also a defense). DMCA notices on AWDTSG posts get rejected or trigger counter-notices that expose your identity in the public Lumen Database without actually removing anything.
Defamation lawsuits. These are technically possible, and a real internet defamation attorney like Minc Law can sometimes win them. But the realistic numbers: a defamation case costs $5,000 to $15,000 minimum to file, can take 18 to 36 months to resolve, and many states have strong anti-SLAPP statutes that let the defendant get the case dismissed AND make you pay their legal fees. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act also shields Facebook and the Tea app themselves from liability for what users post. Even when a defamation case wins on the merits, the post sits up the entire time the case is pending.
Reporting the post to Meta or the Tea app. Both platforms have policies against harassment, doxxing, and personal information sharing. In practice, automated review at Meta scale rarely removes AWDTSG posts because the posts are not triggering Meta's classifiers. Both reporting routes can be tried as a free first step, but the success rate is low for a single report on the post itself.
If your goal is to remove the original post, the only realistic path is hiring a defamation attorney, expecting to pay $5,000 to $15,000, and accepting that you might lose. Most people who try this come back to us a year later having lost the case and now needing help with the downstream damage that has happened in the meantime.
What actually happens after the post: the escalation
The original post is rarely the worst part. The worst part is what comes after.
For women who post in AWDTSG: A guy gets named in a group of hundreds of thousands. He sees the post, or a screenshot makes its way back to him. He has access to intimate photos of you because he is someone you dated. He retaliates by uploading those photos to Telegram channels, to anonymous boards like Anon-IB, to revenge porn sites, or by texting them to your contacts. This is non-consensual intimate image distribution. It is a federal crime under the TAKE IT DOWN Act (passed 2025), criminal in all 50 US states, and exactly the kind of content takedown services were built to handle.
For men who get posted: Within hours of an AWDTSG post going up in a large group, automated scraping bots index it. Your photos, your name, and the allegations get pulled into databases that feed extortion sites (CheaterReport, TheDirty, and offshore equivalents), catfish or impersonation accounts on Tinder and Bumble, and shame forums on Reddit. Within days, googling your name might surface results that have nothing to do with the original AWDTSG post but everything to do with the scrapers that indexed it.
Neither of these escalation paths is the post itself. Both are downstream content hosted on entirely different platforms, and both fall squarely under what a takedown service can address.
For women: the retaliation pattern
If you posted in AWDTSG and intimate photos of you started showing up on Telegram, Anon-IB, leak forums, or revenge porn sites:
This is core NCII territory. The TAKE IT DOWN Act gives you a federal claim. State NCII statutes give you criminal and civil claims. Hosting providers, CDNs, and domain registrars are required to respond to properly formatted notices because of safe harbor obligations. Search engines de-index NCII URLs within 1 to 3 days when the notice is filed correctly.
What works:
- StopNCII.org hash registration on the original intimate images. Free. The 16 partner platforms (Meta, TikTok, Pornhub, Reddit, Snapchat, OnlyFans, Bumble, MindGeek network) auto-block re-uploads. Hash registration runs locally on your device, so the image never leaves your computer. StopNCII has no public API, so this step has to be done by you on your device, but we walk you through it.
- Google and Bing de-indexing of any URLs already showing in search. Filed under our authorized agent credentials, so your name does not end up in the public Lumen Database transparency report.
- DMCA takedowns to the leak sites and their hosting infrastructure. Direct emails to anonymous offshore leak sites are ignored by design, but their CDN providers (usually Cloudflare), hosting providers, and domain registrars all face safe harbor liability and DO respond.
- Continuous monitoring for re-uploads on platforms outside the StopNCII partnership. Twice-weekly SerpAPI scans flag new URLs as they appear.
Our /retaliation page covers the full workflow. The emergency takedown is one-time and priced by domain count: $499 for 1-5 domains, $799 for 6-15 domains, and $1,299 for 16 or more domains. Most retaliation cases land in the 1-5 range because the leak is concentrated on a handful of forums and tube sites. Ongoing monitoring (Shield) is $29 per month if there is an active stalker who keeps re-uploading.
For men: the scraping pattern
If your face got posted in an AWDTSG or Tea screenshot and your photos are now showing up on extortion sites, catfish profiles, or shame forums:
The path is similar but the legal framing is different. Your photos being scraped without consent is a copyright issue (you took or own the photos), a right-of-publicity issue (your face is yours), and depending on the state, an image-based abuse statute issue.
What works:
- A facial recognition sweep across leak sites, extortion forums, dating apps, and social platforms to map every place your photos have ended up. This is the part most victims never do, and it is why content keeps appearing months later. They removed three URLs they knew about and missed twenty they did not.
- DMCA takedowns to extortion sites and their hosting infrastructure for the photos themselves.
- Catfish account reports through dating app trust and safety teams (Tinder, Bumble, Hinge, OkCupid all have dedicated impersonation flows that work when filed properly with evidence).
- Search engine de-indexing for URLs showing your name plus the AWDTSG or Tea allegations.
- Infrastructure-level escalation for repeat-offender extortion sites that ignore takedowns. Cloudflare abuse, hosting providers, registrars, and payment processors. Many of these sites monetize through ads or extortion fees, which creates leverage points that do not exist for the original post.
Our /reputation page covers this workflow. Same tiered emergency pricing as retaliation cases: $499 for 1-5 domains, $799 for 6-15, $1,299 for 16+. Scraping cases more often land in the 6-15 range because automated scraper bots spread one AWDTSG post across many sites within hours. The Reputation Shield monitoring tier is $29 per month for cases where the scraping is continuous.
When you actually need a lawyer
There are situations where a takedown service is the wrong tool and a lawyer is the right one. Be honest with yourself about which case you are in:
* You want to remove the original AWDTSG or Tea post itself, full stop. Hire a defamation attorney. Be ready for $5,000 to $15,000 and an 18 to 36 month timeline.
* You want to sue the person who posted you for damages. Defamation attorney.
* You want to sue Facebook or the Tea app directly. You will likely lose due to Section 230, but a lawyer can confirm.
* You are in a custody dispute where the AWDTSG post is being used against you. Family law attorney first, takedown service second.
* The post involves false criminal allegations that are harming your job or business. Defamation plus reputation management combined.
For everything else, especially the downstream image leak or scraping, a takedown service is the right tool.
When you need both
Most cases of real damage involve both layers, and many clients use a takedown service for the downstream content AND a defamation attorney for the original post (if they choose to pursue that). The takedown service is fast and bounded (one-time pricing scaling with domain count, capped at $1,299 for the most spread-out cases). The lawsuit is slow and expensive but addresses the source.
If your budget only allows one path, our honest recommendation is takedown first. Stopping the spread of intimate images or scraped photos has immediate, measurable impact on your day-to-day life. A defamation case takes years to resolve and may not fix anything practical even when it wins.
What we do not do
To be completely clear about scope:
* We do not remove AWDTSG Facebook posts.
* We do not remove Tea app posts.
* We do not file defamation lawsuits.
* We do not provide legal representation.
* We do not contact the person who posted you, ever. Direct contact backfires almost every time.
What we do is the technical takedown work for the downstream content that a defamation suit cannot reach.
Getting started
If you are not sure which side of this applies to you, the simplest first step is a free scan. The scan surfaces every URL where your photos or name are currently appearing across leak sites, extortion forums, catfish accounts, and search engines. The audit is free and tells you what scope of takedown work you are actually looking at, including which pricing tier your case falls into before you commit to anything.
If you already know your case is the retaliation pattern (intimate images leaked after you posted), start at /retaliation.
If you already know your case is the reputation pattern (your photos scraped from an AWDTSG or Tea post), start at /reputation.
If you actually need a defamation attorney, we would suggest starting with Minc Law (US-based internet defamation specialists). They are not affiliated with us and we do not take referral fees, but they are competent in this area and we would rather you go to them than to a takedown service that overpromises.
The TAKE IT DOWN Act, BIPA, and the 50 state NCII statutes have collectively made the legal landscape for non-consensual image distribution dramatically stronger over the past three years. Most victims do not know how much leverage they actually have. Whatever you do next, do not pay anyone $15,000 to remove a Facebook post until you have at least understood what the cheaper, faster paths can actually achieve.