Report abuse, harassment and threats by the route that gets action
Short answer. To report abuse online, report the specific message, post or profile inside the platform, choose the category that names the harm, because the category decides which rule and which review queue apply, and capture evidence before you block. When the platform will not act, an abuse takedown moves up a layer: to the site’s host, its registrar, a search engine or a law such as the Take It Down Act. Threats also go to the police.
Search for how to report abuse and most of the first page is state hotlines for child and elder abuse. Those are the right place when the abuse happens offline, or to someone who cannot report it. This guide covers the online side: harassment, threats, bullying and abuse campaigns that run through platforms, and the abuse takedown routes for when a report button is not enough. The second half sets out the routes for the platforms and services people search by name, from Tumblr and Bluesky to Kick, Kik and Cloudflare.
41% of US adults have personally experienced online harassment and 25% its more severe forms, such as physical threats, stalking or sustained harassment. Of those targeted, 75% say their most recent experience happened on social media.Pew Research Center, “The State of Online Harassment,” January 2021.
Which category should you choose when you report abuse?
Choose the category that names the harm, not the one closest to how the abuse feels. When you report abuse, the category decides which rule a moderator checks the content against and, on several platforms, how fast the report is read. A threat of violence, a post exposing a home address and a stream of insults are three different reports, even when one account sends all three.
Discord publishes the clearest example of category-driven speed. It aims to review high-harm reports, such as imminent harm or violent extremism, within 24 to 48 hours, and lower-harm reports, such as harassment or hate speech, within a week. A threat filed under a general harassment label waits in the slower line, and the specific labels are used far less often than the general one.
Bluesky users filed 9.97 million reports in 2025, from 1.24 million accounts. Harassment made up 1.99 million of them, 19.93% of the total, yet only 42,520 used the targeted harassment label.Bluesky, 2025 Transparency Report, 29 January 2026.
| What happened | Category to choose | Also report it to |
|---|---|---|
| A threat to hurt or kill someone | Violent threat or threats of violence | Local police; the FBI at tips.fbi.gov |
| A home address, phone number or workplace posted | Private information or privacy violation | Google’s personal information removal form, for the search results |
| Many accounts targeting one person | Targeted harassment where offered, one report per account | The moderators of the server, group or forum |
| Bullying of a child or teenager | Bullying or harassment, with the age stated | The school; the police once a threat or sexual image is involved |
| Intimate images shared without consent | Non-consensual intimate imagery | A Take It Down Act request; NCMEC’s Take It Down if under 18 |
| An account posing as you | Impersonation | The platform’s identity-checked impersonation form |
Harassment reporting works best as a count of specific items. Each message, post or comment is judged on its own text, the way a reported Instagram comment is reviewed by itself rather than as part of a feud. Ten accurate reports about ten messages give a reviewer ten facts; ten reports about one message give one.
For bullying report help involving a minor, StopBullying.gov sets out the point where cyberbullying becomes a crime to report to the police: threats of violence, sexually explicit messages or photos, photos taken somewhere a person expects privacy, stalking and hate crimes. Below that line, the school and the platform are the routes, and many US states require schools to address cyberbullying in their anti-bullying policies.
What evidence makes an abuse report hold up?
When you report abuse, the report holds up if a reviewer can find the exact item and see which rule it breaks without asking you anything. That means a link to each message or post, the account’s permanent handle or ID rather than its display name, the time, and a screenshot showing the item in context. Capture all of it before blocking, because a block can hide the conversation from you.
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Copy the link, not only the screenshot
A screenshot proves what you saw; a link lets the reviewer open the item itself. On Discord, Developer Mode gives each message a link and each account an ID that survives a name change.
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Report before you block
LinkedIn advises saving screenshots before blocking, since a block makes the two accounts invisible to each other. On Grindr, reporting a profile does not block it; the two are separate buttons.
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Attach the conversation when the form offers it
Kik’s report form offers to include the chat history, which gives its moderators the context a single message lacks.
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Log what you filed
Note the date, the category chosen and any reference number. An abuse takedown request to a host, or a police report later, will ask what the platform was told and when.
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Save evidence that expires
Live chat, voice and disappearing messages leave no record unless someone captures them during the abuse. Save the stream recording, the clip or the screen recording the same day.
What a platform does with the evidence varies more than the menus do. On Instagram, what a report can lead to runs from removing one post to disabling the account, and the reporter usually sees only a short status note. The evidence file is yours to keep either way, and it carries every later step.
How do you report abuse on Tumblr, Threads, Bluesky and Mastodon?
All four put a report option in the three-dot menu on a post or profile, but each routes it differently. Tumblr limits harassment reports to the person being harassed, Threads applies the rules of the Instagram account behind the profile, Bluesky asks for a harassment subtype, and Mastodon sends the report to your own server’s moderators, with an option to forward it to the author’s server.
How to report harassment on Tumblr
To report abuse on Tumblr, open the meatballs menu, the three dots on the post, and choose Report, or use the form at tumblr.com/abuse, which asks for the post URL and how it breaks the Community Guidelines. Tumblr’s harassment policy covers targeted abuse, unwanted sexualisation and cyberbullying, so the same form handles requests to report bullying on Tumblr and to report cyberbullying on Tumblr.
The limit is standing. According to Right To Be’s Tumblr safety guide, only the person being harassed can report harassment on Tumblr; bystanders can report a violent threat, promotion of self-harm, harm to minors or a privacy violation on someone else’s behalf, but not general harassment.
Report abusive Threads account posts and profiles
To report abusive Threads account activity, tap the three dots on the post or profile, choose Report and pick the reason. A Threads profile runs on an Instagram account, so Meta applies the same rules and account penalties to both; reporting the Instagram account behind it covers the linked side. On X, the matching route for a single post is set out in how to report a post on X.
Filing a Bluesky harassment report
A Bluesky harassment report starts at the three dots on a post or profile: choose Report, then the harassment category and the closest subtype. For a pile-on, the Bluesky targeted harassment report subtype tells moderators the posts share a target, which the general label does not. Bluesky also checks moderation lists: since April 2025 it screens list names and descriptions for toxicity and hides those that fail, so a list built to target someone can be reported in its own right.
How to report a Mastodon account for harassment
To report a Mastodon account for harassment, open the profile, click the three dots and choose Report. The wizard asks what kind of problem it is and lets you attach the account’s posts as examples; the community guide fedi.tips warns that a report with no examples can leave moderators unable to act. The report goes to your own server’s moderators, who can limit or suspend the account on that server only. When the account lives elsewhere, tick the option to forward the report anonymously to its home server, whose admin is the only one who can remove it everywhere.
Reporting abuse in private chats: Kik, Discord, Grindr and Lemon8
Private chats hide the abuse from everyone except the target, so a target who wants to report abuse there has to supply the evidence. Kik, Grindr and Lemon8 put the report on the person or the post, and Discord puts it on each message. None of them lets a user remove another account: the report asks the platform to do that, and blocking only removes the account from your own view.
Messaging apps work the same way elsewhere, as reporting someone on Snapchat and reporting a Telegram user or channel both show: the report sits on the conversation, and the conversation is the evidence.
How to report abusive user on Kik and flag Kik user for abuse
Tap the person’s display name at the top of the chat, open the three-dot menu, choose Report User and select This person is being abusive. The form offers to include the chat history, and Kik does not tell the reported person who filed it. You can remove a Kik user for harassment from your own chats by blocking, but only Kik can remove the account. For safety issues, Kik’s Trust and Safety team also takes reports at [email protected], the channel for context the app form has no room for.
Report Discord server for harassment through its messages
Discord has no report button for a whole server. To report Discord server for harassment, report each message and profile inside it that targets the person, and tell the server’s moderators, who can act inside that server at once. Discord judges each item against its rules and can then act against the server and its owner together. The full route, including what to copy before leaving a server, is in the Discord server reporting guide.
Report abusive Grindr profile photos, text or messages
Open the profile, tap the block icon in the corner and choose Report, then pick Harassment or Bullying and mark where it happened: profile photo, profile information, chat message or album. Reporting does not block the profile, so tap Block as a separate step. If you blocked first and the profile is gone, email [email protected] with screenshots; Grindr says its moderators can pass reports to law enforcement where required.
How to report harassment on Lemon8
To report harassment on Lemon8, tap the three dots on the post or profile and choose Report. Lemon8’s Community Guidelines list insults aimed at a person, encouraging coordinated harassment, cyberstalking, trolling and sexual harassment as violations, so name the one that fits. Lemon8 is run by ByteDance, the company behind TikTok, and the routes for reporting a TikTok account cover the larger app.
Reporting a Kick streamer, a Fortnite player or a BitChute channel
Live and video platforms judge conduct that can vanish when the stream or the match ends, so the time to report abuse is while the evidence still exists. Kick and Fortnite take in-app reports on chat and players, Fortnite can attach recorded voice, and BitChute takes flags on videos and comments. For coordinated raids, Kick’s own guide sends streamers to its Cyber Security Team by email.
How to report a Kick streamer for harassment
To report a Kick streamer for harassment, use the report button on the channel, which Kick added after criticism of its moderation, or click a chat message or username and choose Report with the reason. Most people who report Kick streamer for harassment are viewers; streamers under attack have a separate playbook. Kick’s mass harassment guide says to switch chat to followers-only, subscribers-only or slow mode, have moderators time out and ban the accounts, keep the VOD, then email the Cyber Security Team with usernames, times and VOD timestamps. For threats of physical harm, Kick tells users to contact local police first.
Report Fortnite player for harassment, with voice evidence
Open the game menu, choose Report, then Submit a report, select the player and pick the reason, such as abusive language, threats or hate speech. Epic keeps reports anonymous from other players. Voice reporting is the part most players miss.
With voice reporting on, Fortnite keeps a rolling five minutes of voice chat on the player’s own device and uploads that clip with a report. Epic deletes submitted clips after 14 days or the length of the sanction, whichever is longer, and voice reporting is on by default for players under 18.Epic Games, “Introducing Voice Reporting in Fortnite” and Voice Reporting FAQ.
Report BitChute channel abuse and harassment
To report BitChute channel abuse, use the flag button that BitChute puts on every video and comment; its guidelines prohibit harassment. For BitChute report harassment searches, that flag is the whole in-platform route, and enforcement is thin. When a channel exists to target someone, the abuse takedown that moves is usually search removal of the personal information it exposes, or a legal notice to the host.
BitChute reported moderating five channels for harassment in the first quarter of 2022.BitChute moderation figures by violation type, compiled by Statista.
Harassment on Nextdoor, LinkedIn, eBay, Quora and Fandom
Sites built for neighbours, careers, shopping, questions or fan wikis all ban harassment, and each lets you report abuse through an object: the member, the message, the answer or the wiki. The difference is who acts. On Fandom a local wiki admin can block a user from one wiki while Fandom staff handle cross-wiki abuse and doxxing; on the other four, only the company can act.
| Platform | Where the report starts | Detail that matters |
|---|---|---|
| Nextdoor | The neighbor’s profile, three dots, Report | Contacting a neighbor after being asked to stop counts as harassment |
| More on the post, message or profile, then Report | The member is not told who reported them | |
| eBay | Report an issue with a seller, in eBay Help | Single messages can also be reported from their own menu |
| Quora | Report in the three-dot menu on the answer or comment | The outcome is not always shared with the reporter |
| Fandom | A local admin, or the Fandom Support request form | Doxxing goes to staff privately, never on a public page |
A Nextdoor harassment report starts on the neighbor’s profile: click the three dots, choose Report, pick a reason and add detail, such as the specific posts or the pattern of contact. Nextdoor’s guidelines define harassment to include continuing to contact a neighbor after being asked to stop, which makes a written request to stop part of the evidence.
How to report someone on LinkedIn for harassment depends on where it happened. A post or comment is reported from its own More menu, choosing Harassment when LinkedIn asks why; a message is reported with Report this conversation inside the thread. LinkedIn does not notify the member who was reported.
How to report a seller on eBay for harassment: open Report an issue with a seller in eBay Help, enter the seller’s username, choose the option for threatening or abusive messages and describe what happened. eBay treats threats, abusive or vulgar language and publishing another member’s contact information as reportable, so keep the original messages in eBay’s message system rather than deleting them.
A Quora harassment removal service can do no more than Quora’s own tools allow: report the answer, comment or question under the harassment policy, and block the user so they can no longer follow, message or comment on your content. Only an answer’s author can delete it, and Quora removes one only when it breaks policy.
Fandom harassment removal runs on two levels. A local admin can block a user from one wiki and delete their comments; Fandom staff, reached through the request form at support.fandom.com, handle harassment across wikis and anything involving personal information. Fandom’s community guidance is to take doxxing to staff privately rather than asking an admin in public, where the thread spreads the information further.
When does an abuse takedown go past the platform?
An abuse takedown goes past the platform when the platform will not act, or when the site itself exists to host the abuse. The next layer is infrastructure: the hosting provider that stores the pages, the registrar that controls the domain, and services such as Cloudflare that sit in front of the site. Each acts under its own acceptable-use rules, and only on what those rules cover.
Report abuse to Cloudflare, and when the domain is the problem
Report abuse to Cloudflare through the form at abuse.cloudflare.com, the intake for any abuse takedown there; Cloudflare says emailed complaints generally get an automated reply pointing back to the form. For harassment, choose Violent Threats and Harassment, the category Cloudflare also names for sensitive reports. For most sites Cloudflare is a proxy rather than a host, so its standard step is to forward the complaint to the website operator and the hosting provider, and to give the host the origin IP address so it can find the content.
A Cloudflare report abuse domain complaint is different. When the domain is registered through Cloudflare Registrar, use the Registrar category or [email protected]. A registrar abuse takedown removes a whole domain, and Cloudflare’s own abuse approach warns that registrars act only on whole domains, for problems such as false WHOIS details or hijacking, and do not judge individual pages. A Facebook Page built to target someone is the platform-level version of the same question, settled by what it publishes, as in taking down a Facebook Page.
What the Kiwi Farms case shows
The Kiwi Farms case marks the ceiling of the infrastructure abuse takedown. On 3 September 2022 Cloudflare blocked the forum, which had organised doxxing and swatting campaigns, citing an “immediate threat to human life” a month after the forum’s users had a Canadian streamer swatted. The forum moved to other providers and returned. Kiwi Farms harassment removal of a single thread rarely comes from the forum itself; the routes that work are search removal of the exposed personal information and police reports for the threats, which is where content removal casework usually starts.
Report abuse chrome extension: two different requests
The phrase report abuse chrome extension covers two needs. An extension that spies on a partner, injects content or misleads its users is reported from its own Chrome Web Store page through the report abuse link, and Google’s Chrome Web Store team investigates under its program policies. Extensions that promise to report abuse for you are the opposite case: none can file a report with more weight than the platform’s own form, and many ask for permission to read every page you visit.
Which abuse takedown routes carry legal force?
Three routes carry the force of law in the US: the Take It Down Act for intimate images shared without consent, the DMCA for photos and videos you own the copyright in, and criminal law for threats and stalking. Each has a narrow scope. An abuse takedown built on the wrong one fails, and a false copyright claim can expose the sender to liability.
Since 19 May 2026, covered platforms must remove non-consensual intimate images, and known identical copies, within 48 hours of a valid request. The FTC can seek civil penalties of $53,088 per violation.Federal Trade Commission, “Complying With the Take It Down Act,” 2026.
That 48-hour clock makes the Take It Down Act the only federal abuse takedown route with a fixed removal deadline. The FTC also runs TakeItDown.ftc.gov for reporting a platform that ignores a valid request. For images of someone who was under 18 when they were taken, NCMEC’s Take It Down service creates a digital fingerprint on the person’s own device, so participating platforms can find copies without the image ever being uploaded.
A DMCA notice works as an abuse takedown against harassment only when the abuser reposts something you own, such as your own photos. It is a legal claim rather than a report: the notice usually reaches the uploader with your name, as an Instagram copyright report does, and Section 512(f) of the Copyright Act makes anyone who knowingly misrepresents infringement liable for damages. The notice itself is covered in the DMCA takedown guide.
Threats cross into criminal law sooner than many targets assume. Federal law makes it a crime to send a threat to injure someone across state lines, 18 U.S.C. § 875(c), and the cyberstalking statute, 18 U.S.C. § 2261A, covers a course of conduct that causes substantial emotional distress. Report threats to local police and to the FBI at tips.fbi.gov; a police report number also strengthens later platform reports and any abuse takedown request to a host. This is general information, not legal advice.
When is it pointless to report abuse, and what works instead?
There is no point trying to report abuse when the content breaks no written rule, when the reporter lacks standing under a rule that protects only the target, or when the platform does not enforce its own rules. Volume fixes none of those. A hundred reports of a post that breaks no rule reach the same verdict as one, and coordinated reporting breaks most platforms’ rules itself.
Enforcement counts violations, not complaints, as Instagram’s strike system shows. The same ceiling applies to paid offers to ban a harasser. A service can build the evidence file, choose the right category and carry an abuse takedown to the host, the search engine or a lawyer, but it cannot buy a platform decision, the limit set out in what Instagram account removal services can do.
Harassment also moves into places with no report button built for it, such as a run of fake one-star reviews on a business profile. Google judges those under its review policies, and a Google review removal service works within that same limit. When a campaign spans several platforms, the working order is: stop the immediate danger, preserve evidence, report abuse item by item on each platform, then take the abuse takedown to hosts, search engines or the law for whatever remains.
Whether the person you report learns your name is a separate question, and on Instagram the forms that do share your details are the legal ones, not the ordinary report.
Frequently asked questions
Does the person know when you report abuse?
Usually not. LinkedIn, Kik and Fortnite all keep the reporter's identity from the reported account, and Mastodon can forward a report to another server anonymously. Context can still give you away, for example when only you received the message. Legal notices differ: a DMCA notice normally reaches the uploader with your name on it.
How long does an abuse report take?
It depends on the harm. Discord aims to review high-harm reports within 24 to 48 hours and harassment within a week. For intimate images shared without consent, the Take It Down Act gives covered US platforms 48 hours from a valid request. Most platforms publish no deadline for ordinary harassment, and repeating a report does not speed it up.
Can I report harassment for someone else?
Often, but not everywhere. Tumblr accepts harassment reports only from the person being harassed, while letting bystanders report threats, self-harm, harm to minors and privacy violations. Most other platforms accept reports from anyone who sees the content, though the target's own report carries context a bystander cannot give.
What is an abuse takedown?
An abuse takedown is a request to remove harmful content made to whoever controls it beyond the account holder: the platform, the hosting provider, the domain registrar, a service such as Cloudflare, or a search engine. It rests on that party's abuse or acceptable-use policy, or on a law such as the Take It Down Act or the DMCA.
Should I block or report first?
Report first. Capture screenshots and links, file the report while the content is still visible to you, then block. On Grindr, reporting does not block the profile, and on LinkedIn a block makes the two accounts invisible to each other, which can hide evidence you still need.
The platform said no, and the abuse is still up?
Send the links, what you reported and what the platform replied. The reply sets out which abuse takedown route fits next, whether the host, the search engine or a legal notice, and what each one asks you to prove.