Report it under Coco’s Law. But capture it first.
Ireland criminalised image-based abuse in February 2021, and the law is broader than most people realise: it reaches threats to share, and it reaches images that only purport to be of you, which covers deepfakes. Hotline.ie got 92 per cent of the intimate images reported to it removed. Removal is exactly what you want, and it is also the moment your proof stops existing.
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unknown_acct_41
Posted 2 hours ago · public
Image posted without consent. Shown here only as a placeholder.
Removed 4 days later, and the account went with it.
Captured & sealed
SHA-256 · Bitcoin timestamp
Illustrative example. No real image, no real account.
The Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Act 2020, known as Coco’s Law, commenced on 10 February 2021 and is wider than the popular description of it. It criminalises recording, distributing or publishing an intimate image without consent, it criminalises threatening to do so, and it criminalises sending an image that purports to be of another person even where it is not, which brings deepfakes inside the offence. The penalty runs to seven years imprisonment and an unlimited fine. Alongside the criminal route, Hotline.ie is the national reporting centre: it assesses reported content and, where it is illegal, issues the intermediary with a takedown notice under its Code of Practice, and of the 1,006 intimate images and videos reported to it between September 2021 and December 2023, 92 per cent were removed. The route is used: in a Department of Justice operational review published in September 2024, the Director of Public Prosecutions had taken almost 100 cases under the Act, and Garda charges rose from 22 in 2021 to 95 in 2022 and 113 in 2023. Every one of those paths needs proof of the posting. ProofSnap captures the page in about forty seconds and produces a package with the full-page screenshot, the saved source, the URL, the capture time in UTC, a SHA-256 hash of every file, an RSA-4096 signature and an eIDAS qualified timestamp, which in Ireland carries the Article 41 presumption directly. From $4.99 (approx. €4.30) as a one-off purchase, with no subscription.
By Radim Motycka, Founder and Lead Engineer, ProofSnap · · Independently verifiable via Trust Verifier
What usually goes wrong
The record disappears at the moment things start working
A takedown is the outcome you asked for, and it removes the thing everyone would otherwise be arguing about.
Removal erases the record
Hotline.ie issues takedown notices and most of them succeed. If your only copy of the URL, the account and the surrounding page was the live page, the notice works and your evidence goes with it. Capturing first costs under a minute.
The person posting deletes first
People remove this material the moment they realise it has been reported, and accounts get deactivated. A capture made while it is live is not something they can undo.
A prosecution needs the posting itself
An Garda Síochána and the Director of Public Prosecutions work from evidence. The account, the wording, the timing and the platform are what establish the offence, and they live on the page rather than in a cropped phone screenshot.
What the 2020 Act actually covers
The Act created several distinct offences. Knowing which one fits changes what you should preserve.
Distributing or publishing without consent
Recording, distributing or publishing an intimate image of a person without their consent is an offence. The most serious offence carries up to seven years imprisonment and an unlimited fine.
Threatening to share counts
The offence reaches a threat to distribute or publish, not only the act itself. That matters in sextortion, where the demand for payment arrives before anything is posted, and where the threat message is the evidence.
Deepfakes are inside the offence
Sending an intimate image that purports or claims to be of another person is an offence even where the image is not actually of them. Ireland legislated for synthetic imagery earlier than most jurisdictions.
Hotline.ie and the takedown route
Hotline.ie is the national reporting centre. It assesses reported content and, where the content is illegal, issues the online intermediary with a takedown notice under its Code of Practice. Of the 1,006 intimate images and videos reported to it between September 2021 and December 2023, 92 per cent were removed.
One practical warning about your own safety
If the image is of a person under 18, do not download, copy or forward it, including to preserve it. Report it to An Garda Síochána and to Hotline.ie and let them handle the material itself. Making or keeping a copy of that material is itself an offence and there is no exception for gathering evidence. ProofSnap is for the public page, the profile, the threatening message or the demand for payment, which is usually what proves the offence anyway. If you are in immediate danger, call 999 or 112.
How do I capture the post before it is taken down?
No forensic training required. The proof is in the package, not in your testimony about how careful you were.
Capture the page and the account
Open the page, the profile and any messages in Chrome or Edge and start the capture from the side panel. The whole page is captured, with the URL and the account recorded in the metadata.
The package seals itself
Every file is hashed with SHA-256, the manifest is signed, and the manifest hash carries an eIDAS qualified timestamp plus a Bitcoin blockchain anchor. The capture time is recorded in UTC, independent of your device clock.
Report, then keep the ZIP
Report to An Garda Síochána and to Hotline.ie. Keep the ZIP. If a prosecution follows, the record is already in a form anyone can verify.
What is in a Coco’s Law evidence package?
Between 11 and 15 files depending on your plan, delivered as one ZIP that anyone can check without installing anything.
Full-page screenshot
The whole page, not just the visible window, stitched and hashed.
Saved page source
The document as rendered at capture time, including the head, meta tags and structured data.
Extracted page text
Searchable plain text, so a quote can be found and cited without retyping.
Technical metadata
URL, page title, HTTP response headers, browser, operating system and the capture time in UTC.
Signed manifest
SHA-256 for every file, signed with an RSA-4096 key whose public key ships in the package.
Blockchain timestamp
The manifest hash anchored to Bitcoin via OpenTimestamps, so the capture time cannot be backdated.
Chain of custody and forensic log
A record of what happened during the capture, in the order it happened.
Evidence report as PDF
A readable summary you can attach to an application, a notice or a report.
Verification instructions
Written steps plus scripts, so the other side can re-check the hashes offline.
Where all of that comes from
Every file above is produced by one press in the side panel. You never have to keep the material yourself in a loose folder, and you do not have to look at it again to prove where it was and when.
Capture the post, the account and any reposts before you report it, because a report that works ends with all of it taken down.
Want to see what comes out before you install anything? Download a sample evidence package and open it yourself.
Anyone can verify it, including the other side. Drop the ZIP onto the public Trust Verifier and the hashes, the signature and the timestamp are checked in the browser. Nothing is uploaded and nothing depends on ProofSnap still existing.
Three ways to get the evidence
Prices are charged in USD. Approximate euro figures are shown for orientation only, and your card issuer sets the actual rate.
One dispute
$4.99 once
approx. €4.30
A SnapPack is a single up-front purchase for a set number of captures. No subscription, no auto-renewal, no trial. Best when you have one problem and you want it documented today.
Get a SnapPackOngoing matters
$8.99/month
approx. €7.80
For anyone who captures regularly: practitioners, property managers, HR, investigators. The 7-day free trial requires a credit card. Cancel any time during the trial and you are not charged.
Start the 7-day trialWe do it for you
$44.99 per URL
approx. €39
Send us the link and our team captures the package for you, with nothing to install. Useful when the capture should not come from a party to the dispute.
See the capture serviceProofSnap is not a law firm and does not give legal advice. Qualified timestamps are issued by Disig a.s., a Qualified Trust Service Provider on the EU Trusted List. Ireland applies eIDAS directly as an EU member state, so that timestamp carries the Article 41 presumption here without any retained-law argument.
Official sources
Every figure and deadline on this page comes from the following primary sources. Check them yourself rather than taking our word for it.
- Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Act 2020 the Act itself, including the offences and the penalties.
- Hotline.ie the national reporting centre that issues takedown notices to intermediaries.
- Department of Justice: intimate image abuse the official summary of the law and the support available.
- An Garda Síochána where the criminal side is reported.
- Department of Justice: operational review of the 2020 Act the prosecution and charge figures quoted above, published September 2024.
If the same account is also defaming you, the one-year defamation clock runs in parallel and the two claims work from the same capture. Capture before you block or delete the account. Blocking can cut off your own access to the history, so the order matters. And do not make copies of material involving anyone under 18 under any circumstances, which is why the safety note above matters more than any feature on this page.
Questions people actually ask
Removal is the goal. Losing the proof is not.
Capture the page while it is still there, then report it. The record outlives the takedown.