How to ask for something to be removed, what to send, and what happens after you send it.
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If something on this site is yours and should not be here, this page is the route to getting it taken down. It covers copyright, personal data, and material that is unlawful for some other reason.
Most of what is published here comes from open licences, and most of the rest is contributed by people with accounts who confirmed they had the right to post it. That second group is where mistakes happen.
A complaint we can act on quickly names the thing and the claim, in one message, through the contact page:
The address of the page, and enough detail to identify the exact item on it. A photograph, an entry, a line of a description. "Something on the Lagos page" is not enough to act on.
What the material is and where it was published first, with a link if there is one.
Why you are entitled to complain: that you own the copyright, that you act for the owner, or that the material is your personal data.
A statement that you believe in good faith that the use is not authorised by the owner, an agent, or the law.
A way to reach you, and a name. Anonymous complaints are read but they cannot be resolved, because there is nobody to tell the outcome to.
Within three working days we will either remove the material or reply explaining why we have not.
Where the claim is clear on its face, and for anything involving an identifiable person, the material comes down first and the argument happens afterwards. The cost of removing a photograph for a week is much lower than the cost of leaving the wrong one up.
Where it is a contributor's work, we tell the contributor what was claimed and by whom, unless telling them would put someone at risk. They can answer, and if they do, both sides are considered before anything goes back up.
Removal is not deletion of the record. A row stays in the moderation log saying that something was removed, when, and on what ground. It does not hold the material. That record is how a pattern of bad complaints, or a pattern of bad contributions, becomes visible.
Photographs are taken from Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons, and only under public domain, CC0 or CC BY terms, which permit republication with credit. If your photograph is here under one of those licences, it is probably here legitimately and the credit is the thing to check first.
Two complaints are worth making anyway, and both will be acted on: that the credit is wrong or missing, which we will correct at once; and that the licence recorded on the file page is not the licence you granted, which we will act on by removing the photograph while it is sorted out upstream.
If you would simply rather your photograph was not on this site, say so. There is no obligation on us to remove it, and we will remove it.
If the material is your personal data and you want it erased, the privacy notice sets out that right and the one limit on it. Use the contact page and say that the request is a data protection one, so it goes to the right queue.
A court order naming this site and the material will be complied with. An informal request from a public body, without an order, will be assessed on the same footing as anyone else's complaint, and answered in writing.
Where we can say publicly that material was removed on an order, we will, on this page.
Reply to the message that told you about it, or use the contact page. A removal made on an unclear claim can be reversed, and we would rather reverse one than leave a bad complaint standing.