How to Delete a Photo That You've Been Tagged in on Facebook

You can untag yourself and disassociate yourself from the image. Hover your mouse cursor over the post until the small "Pencil" icon appears, and then click on that icon. Choose “Report/Remove Tag” from the drop-down menu. You'll be offered two choices: remove the tag, or remove the photo. If you choose the latter option, you'll be asked to state a reason. If you indicate that you don't like the photo of yourself, Facebook will send a message to the user who posted it, asking that it be removed (note that he is under no obligation to comply). If you choose to remove the tag, your name will no longer be associated with the image. If the photo is set to "Public," then all Facebook users will still be able to see it; if it is set to "Just Friends," all of the poster's friends will still be able to see it. Removing the tag simply removes your name from the picture and removes the image from your friends’ news feeds.

If you want a photo to be removed from Facebook – for instance, it might be unflattering or embarrassing -- you can select the “Remove Photo” option in the “Report/Remove Tag” process mentioned above to send a removal request to the owner of the photo, or you can contact that user directly and ask him to remove the image. To do this, browse to the user's Facebook profile and click on the "Message" button to send a private request. He might not comply -- under Facebook’s guidelines, no one can be forced to remove a photo that doesn’t violate the Statement of Rights and Responsibilities -- but it doesn’t hurt to ask. If the person is your friend, he might be willing to remove the image as a courtesy.

If you want to untag yourself in a photo as well as block the person who posted the image, you can do so. To block a user, click the "Padlock" icon at the top of the page and select “How do I stop someone from bothering me?” Type in the email address or name of the person you want to block and then click “Block.” Note that Facebook will not notify the user that you have blocked him.

If you see a photo that violates Facebook's Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, you can report it. This generally applies only to hate speech, pornography and other blatantly inappropriate photos, but if you think a photo falls into this category, you can make a report. To do this for a photo in which you're tagged, place your cursor over the post until you see the small pencil icon appear, and then click on it. Choose “Report/Remove Tag” from the menu and choose "remove the photo" from the next set of menu options. You'll then see three reasons for removing the photo; select "I think it shouldn't be on Facebook" and follow the steps from there to report the picture. If staff does not find that the photo violates Facebook’s rules, it will not be removed.

Information in this article applies to Facebook at the time of publication. It may vary slightly or significantly from previous or subsequent website updates.