Pressfront / Trace / Getting piled on? Stop replying, save everything, lock down.
Help guide · Updated October 2026
A pile-on feels endless. Most burn out in days. Your job is not to win the thread. It is to stay safe, keep proof, and let it run out of fuel.
Report it, platform by platform
Where the buttons areIf you think you are in danger right now, call 911 (or your local emergency number) first. Everything else can wait.
The private-account rule. We never log in, follow anyone, request access to a locked account, or use scraped private data. A private account is invisible to us and stays that way. So what you see below is the earliest public appearance we could verify, never a proven origin. If a story started in a group chat, a DM or a locked profile, the first public post is the node we can see, and we say so rather than dressing it up as the source.
Run one yourself: Trace a story. How the sweep and the confidence number are built: the methodology card.
Do this before you block or report. Reported posts can vanish, and so can your proof.
Replies, quote posts and "clarifications" tell the platform the thread is hot. It then shows it to more people. Silence is not losing. It is starving it.
If you must say something, say it once, in one place, after the first wave passes. Not in the replies.
Police: threats of violence, your home address posted, or someone showing up. Ask for a report number.
Lawyer: false claims costing you work, or your employer is involved. Your evidence list is the first thing they will ask for.
Once you are safe, people usually want to know one thing: where did this start, and who spread it? That is what Trace shows. It finds the earliest public post we can verify, the accounts that carried it furthest, and how fast it moved. You can keep it as an evidence pack.
What it will not do: name the real person behind an anonymous account, read private accounts or DMs, or make anything go away. It shows public posts and says what it could not see.
Most attention spikes fade within days, but there is no rule. Not replying and not feeding it new material is the best way to help it fade sooner.
Save a copy first. Deleting can stop new people finding it, but screenshots keep circulating. Do what helps you feel safe, and keep your own record.
No. Trace never tries to unmask anyone. It shows public posts, public accounts and timing, and says plainly what it could not see.
Not in the heat of it. If you decide to, write it once, keep it short, and post it in one place after the first wave. Never inside the angry replies.
Earliest public post, who spread it, and an evidence pack you can keep.
Honest fine print. Trace reports the earliest public appearance we could verify inside the window we searched, which is not the same thing as a proven origin. We only read public posts and public metrics, so deleted posts, screenshots laundered out of private accounts, and anything that started in a DM or a locked group are invisible to us, and every result names the sources that came back empty. Confidence is a number we publish together with the gaps behind it, never on its own. Trace describes what has already happened and how fast it is moving right now; it does not predict what will go viral, and no honest tool does.