Policy details

Change log

CHANGE LOG

Change log

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Policy Rationale
In an effort to prevent and disrupt offline harm and copycat behavior, we prohibit people from facilitating, organizing, promoting or admitting to certain criminal or harmful activities targeted at people, businesses, property or animals. We allow people to debate and advocate for the legality of criminal and harmful activities, as well as draw attention to harmful or criminal activity that they may witness or experience as long as they do not advocate for or coordinate harm.
We Remove:
Harm against people

  • Outing: exposing the identity or locations affiliated with anyone who is alleged to:
  • Be a member of an outing-risk group; and/or
  • Share familial and/or romantic relationships with a member(s) of an outing-risk group; and/or
  • Have performed professional activities in support of an outing-risk group (except for political figures)
  • Outing the undercover status of law enforcement, military, or security personnel if the content contains the agent’s name, their face or badge and any of the following:
  • The agent’s law enforcement organization
  • The agent’s law enforcement operation
  • Explicit mentions of their undercover status
  • Coordinating, threatening, supporting, or admitting to swatting except in the context of awareness raising or condemnation, fictional or staged settings or redemption.
  • Depicting, promoting, advocating for or encouraging participation in a high-risk viral challenge except in the context of awareness raising or condemnation. Where imagery is depicted in these contexts, we include a label so that people are aware that the content may be sensitive.

Harm against animals

  • Coordinating, threatening, supporting or admitting to acts of physical harm against animals (in written, visual or verbal form) except in cases of:
  • Awareness-raising or condemnation
  • Redemption
  • Survival or defense of self, another human or another animal
  • Fictional or staged settings EXCEPT where it depicts staged animal fights or fake animal rescues
  • Hunting or fishing
  • Religious sacrifice
  • Food preparation or processing
  • Pests or vermin
  • Mercy killing
  • Bullfighting
  • Coordinating, threatening, supporting, depicting or admitting to staged animal fights or depicting video imagery of fake animal rescues except in the context of awareness raising or condemnation or redemption.

Harm against property

  • Coordinating, threatening, supporting or admitting to vandalism, theft or malicious hacking (in written, visual or verbal form) , except in the context of
  • Awareness raising or condemnation,
  • Redemption,
  • Fictional or staged settings,
  • Admitting in the context of defense of self, or another human
  • depicting vandalism in protest context,
  • depicting graffiti, or
  • speaking positively about vandalism and theft committed by others.

Voter and/or census fraud

  • Offers to buy or sell votes with cash, gifts, services or other material goods, except if shared in condemning, awareness raising, news reporting, or humorous or satirical contexts.
  • Advocating, providing instructions for, or demonstrating explicit intent to illegally participate in a voting or census process, except if shared in condemning, awareness raising, news reporting, or humorous or satirical contexts.

For the following content, we include a label so that people are aware the content may be sensitive:
  • Imagery depicting a high-risk viral challenge if shared condemning or raising awareness of the associated risks.
For the following Community Standards, we require additional information and/or context to enforce:

We Remove:

  • Outing: exposing the identity of a person and putting them at risk of harm:
  • LGBTQIA+ members
  • Unveiled women
  • Non-convicted individuals as predators in the context of a sexual predator Sting Operation
  • Individuals involved in legal cases, when their involvement is restricted from public disclosure
  • Witnesses, informants , activists, detained persons or hostages
  • Defectors, when reported by credible government channel
  • Prisoners of war, in the context of an armed conflict
  • Imagery that is likely to deceive the public as to its origin if:
  • The entity depicted or an authorized representative objects to the imagery, and
  • The imagery has the potential to cause harm to members of the public.
  • Statement of intent, call to action, or encouragement to either:
  • Block access to essential services when there is confirmation or publicly available confirmation that emergency vehicles are blocked, OR
  • Target an individual or specific group of people by blocking their access to essential services or unobstructed passage in a way that may threaten their safety
  • Voter or census interference, including:
  • Calls for coordinated interference that would affect an individual’s ability to participate in an official election or census.
  • Claims that voting or census participation may or will result in law enforcement consequences (for example, arrest, deportation or imprisonment).
  • Threats to go to an election site to monitor or watch voters or election officials’ activities if combined with a reference to intimidation (e.g., “Let’s show them who's boss!,”, “They want a war? We’ll give them a war.”).
  • Threats to go to a post-election activity site if combined with a reference to intimidation (e.g., “Let’s show them who's boss!,”, “They want a war? We’ll give them a war.”).
User experiences

See some examples of what enforcement looks like for people on Facebook, such as: what it looks like to report something you don’t think should be on Facebook, to be told you’ve violated our Community Standards and to see a warning screen over certain content.

Note: We’re always improving, so what you see here may be slightly outdated compared to what we currently use.

Reporting
1
Universal entry point

We have an option to report, whether it's on a post, comment, story, message, profile or something else.

2
Get started

We help people report things that they don’t think should be on our platform.

3
Select a problem

We ask people to tell us more about what’s wrong. This helps us send the report to the right place.

4
Check your report

Make sure the details are correct before you click Submit. It’s important that the problem selected truly reflects what was posted.

5
Report submitted

After these steps, we submit the report. We also lay out what people should expect next.

6
More options

We remove things if they go against our Community Standards, but you can also Unfollow, Block or Unfriend to avoid seeing posts in future.

Post-report communication
1
Update via notifications

After we’ve reviewed the report, we’ll send the reporting user a notification.

2
More detail in the Support Inbox

We’ll share more details about our review decision in the Support Inbox. We’ll notify people that this information is there and send them a link to it.

3
Appeal option

If people think we got the decision wrong, they can request another review.

4
Post-appeal communication

We’ll send a final response after we’ve re-reviewed the content, again to the Support Inbox.

Takedown experience
1
Immediate notification

When someone posts something that doesn't follow our rules, we’ll tell them.

2
Additional context

We’ll also address common misperceptions and explain why we made the decision to enforce.

3
Policy Explanation

We’ll give people easy-to-understand explanations about the relevant rule.

4
Option for review

If people disagree with the decision, they can ask for another review and provide more information.

5
Final decision

We set expectations about what will happen after the review has been submitted.

Warning screens
1
Warning screens in context

We cover certain content in News Feed and other surfaces, so people can choose whether to see it.

2
More information

In this example, we give more context on why we’ve covered the photo with more context from independent fact-checkers

Enforcement

We have the same policies around the world, for everyone on Facebook.

Review teams

Our global team of over 15,000 reviewers work every day to keep people on Facebook safe.

Stakeholder engagement

Outside experts, academics, NGOs and policymakers help inform the Facebook Community Standards.

Get help with coordinating harm and promoting crime

Learn what you can do if you see something on Facebook that goes against our Community Standards.