Practical guide · written against AIM Transparency 2.2.3, October 2026
The short version
- One click removes it. Open the plugin’s Directory tab and press Remove my listing. The listing comes down and your site forgets the token that proved it was yours.
- Delete the badge code too. If you put the directory badge in your footer, take it out. Once the listing is gone the badge has nothing to show, and the broken image can leave its alt text on your page.
- Uninstalling now cleans up after itself. From 2.2.3, deleting the plugin from WordPress asks the directory to remove your listing first. Deactivating it does not.
Remove it from the dashboard
The directory is opt-in and off by default, so this only applies if you listed your site at some point.
- In your WordPress admin, open AIM Transparency and go to the Directory tab.
- Under Your listing, press Remove my listing.
- The tab switches to Not listed. That is the whole job.
Behind that button, your site sends the directory one request carrying two things: your site’s address and the token it was given when you listed. The token is what proves the request comes from your site, so nobody else can remove your listing. Your site then deletes the consent record, the contact email and the token it was holding. Nothing else is sent, before or after.
To check it worked, search for your site on the directory. It should no longer appear.
Take the badge out of your footer
When you listed, the Directory tab offered an optional badge for your footer: a few lines of HTML with an image drawn by the directory, linking to your listing. The directory only draws it for a site that is listed. After removal it has nothing to draw.
So delete that code from your footer, widget or theme. If it stays, the image breaks, some browsers show its alt text in its place, and that alt text reads Discloses AI content, AIM Transparency. That is a claim your page should not be making once you have left the directory, linking to a listing that no longer exists.
The badge code is easy to find: it is the only image on your site whose address starts with https://directory.aimtransparency.com/api/badge.
Uninstalling the plugin
Until version 2.2.3, uninstalling while you were listed left the listing up for good. The uninstall deleted the token without using it first, so the one thing that could take the listing down was gone. We wrote up how that happened.
From 2.2.3, deleting the plugin from the Plugins screen (or with WP-CLI) sends the same removal request as the button first, then deletes the token. A few cases still do not remove your listing, because WordPress never runs the plugin’s uninstall step for them:
- Deactivating. A deactivated plugin is still installed, and the listing stays exactly as it is.
- Deleting the plugin folder by FTP or a file manager. The files go, the uninstall step never runs, and nothing is sent.
- Restoring a backup or moving the site without the plugin. The new copy knows nothing about the old listing.
The safe order is always the same: press Remove my listing first, then do whatever you were going to do.
What the directory deletes
When the directory receives a valid removal, it deletes your site’s record entirely: the address, the site name, the number of labelled images, the plugin and WordPress versions, the contact email if you gave one, your consent record and the token. Nothing is kept for later.
We are being precise about this because it was not always true. Until 23 October 2026 the directory hid a removed listing and cleared the email, but kept the rest of the row, while our plugin’s description said removal deleted the stored data. The directory now does what that sentence says, and the records that had been hidden the old way were deleted at the same time.
Networks of sites
On a WordPress network, each site joins the directory on its own, from its own Directory tab, with its own token. Removing one site’s listing does not touch the others.
If you delete the plugin from the whole network, every site that had listed asks for its own removal, with its own address and token. Sites that never listed send nothing.
When it does not go through
The removal needs the directory to be reachable at that moment. If it is not, the uninstall still finishes after a few seconds, and your site still deletes its token, so it cannot try again. The same applies to the button.
If your listing is still there a minute after you removed it, or you uninstalled an older version while listed, write to support@aimtransparency.com with your site’s address and we will take it down by hand.
For developers: the aicl_directory_endpoint filter can return an empty string to stop the plugin contacting the directory at all. That also stops removals, so if you switch the directory off this way while listed, remove the listing first.
Listing again later
You can list again whenever you like, from the same tab. The directory checks your site afresh, a new token is created, and the listing starts from nothing, because nothing was kept.
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