Reverse face search for photos posted on Reddit

Why Reddit shows up in face search results

Reddit is built to be read without an account. Subreddit pages, posts, image uploads on Reddit's own image host and user profile pages are all served to search engines, which is why a search for your own face so often lands on a Reddit thread: a photo reposted to a hobby subreddit, a screenshot in a drama thread, a dating-profile screenshot asked about in a scam subreddit, or a comparison post that borrowed a picture of you. The reverse is also true. A photo that was only ever in a private community, a direct message or a quarantined subreddit behind an interstitial is not on the open web and will not match.

• Your face in a public post you did not make: the most common finding. The source page shows the subreddit, the username and the date, which is what a report needs.
• A profile avatar or banner: Reddit profiles are public pages, so an avatar that uses your photo is findable.
• A screenshot of another platform: dating and scam subreddits are full of screenshots, so a Tinder or Instagram photo can surface through Reddit even when the original platform is closed.
• No match: the post is in a private or quarantined subreddit, was deleted, or has not been crawled yet. Deleted posts often live on in third-party archives, which a search can still reach if those pages are public.

What is public on Reddit, and what is not

How to search a Reddit photo

1. 1

   Open the image at full size

   Click the image in the post so Reddit shows the full upload, then save it or take a screenshot. Thumbnails in the feed are too small to match well.

2. 2

   Crop to one face

   Cut away the post title, usernames and any other faces so a single face fills most of the frame. The photo tips cover size and quality.

3. 3

   Run the search

   Upload the crop on the search page. The first search is free and needs no account. A deep search reaches further across the public web, which helps with reposts that have travelled through several sites.

4. 4

   Read the source pages

   A match on Reddit shows the subreddit, the username and the date. Open it and note whether it is the original upload or a repost, because the original tells you who put the photo online first. See reading your results for look-alikes and dead links.

5. 5

   Decide what to do

   If the post uses your photo without consent, report it (steps below) and keep screenshots with the URL. If it is a repost of a public photo of yours, decide whether it needs action at all; the takedown guide helps weigh it.

Karma Decay and other Reddit-only tools

Karma Decay is a long-running third-party tool that checks whether an image has been posted to Reddit before. It matches the picture, not the face, and it only looks inside Reddit, which makes it the right tool for one question: has this exact image been on Reddit already? A face search answers a different question: where else does this face appear, on Reddit and everywhere else that is public. For a stolen photo, run both. Karma Decay finds the repost chain inside Reddit; a face search finds the copies that left Reddit and the other photos of you that were never on it. Reddit's own search only matches text in titles and comments, so it will not find an image by its content.

How to report a Reddit post or account that uses your photo

1. 01On the post or comment, open the menu and choose Report. Pick the reason that fits: impersonation for an account pretending to be you, non-consensual intimate media for private images, harassment for targeted abuse. Reddit's report form accepts the same reasons with a URL if you prefer a form.
2. 02Report the account as well as the post when a username is built around your name or face. Reddit's content policy bans impersonating an individual or entity in a misleading way; satire and clearly labelled parody are allowed, so say plainly that the account is presenting as you.
3. 03Message the subreddit's moderators through the sidebar. Moderators can remove a post in minutes; Reddit's own review takes longer.
4. 04For intimate images, Reddit participates in StopNCII, so creating a hash there also helps Reddit block re-uploads. The intimate image abuse guide has the full route, including police and helplines.
5. 05Keep the post URL, the username and screenshots before anything is removed. Reports to the platform, to police and under data-protection law all need them.

Reddit settings that reduce your exposure

• Show up in search results: turn this off under Safety and Privacy to add a no-index tag to your profile page. Posts in public subreddits stay public and indexable; only the profile page is affected.
• Profile content curation: Reddit lets you hide posts and comments from your profile page, which removes the one-page overview but not the posts.
• Avatar choice: an avatar made from your own photo is a public, crawlable image. A generated avatar is not a photo of you.
• Account separation: a username that is not your name, and no face in your profile, breaks the link between a face match and an identity.
• Run a search on your own photos every few months. Reddit reposts are common and usually harmless, but the ones that are not are easier to handle early. The find my photos guide has the routine.