Dangerous Organizations and Individuals

We remove praise, substantive support and representation of various dangerous organizations and individuals. These concepts apply to the organizations themselves, their activities, and their members. These concepts do not proscribe peaceful advocacy for particular political outcomes.

Praise, defined as any of the below:

• Speak positively about a designated entity or event;
  • E.g., “The fighters for the Islamic State are really brave!”
• Give a designated entity or event a sense of achievement;
  • E.g., “Timothy McVeigh is a martyr.”
• Legitimizing the cause of a designated entity by making claims that their hateful, violent, or criminal conduct is legally, morally, or otherwise justified or acceptable;
  • E.g., “Hitler did nothing wrong.”
• Aligning oneself ideologically with a designated entity or event.
  • E.g., “I stand with Brenton Tarrant.”

We remove Praise of Tier 1 entities and designated events. We will also remove praise of violence carried out by Tier 2 entities.

Substantive Support, defined as any of the below:

• Any act which improves the financial status of a designated entity - including funnelling money towards, or away from a designated entity;
  • E.g., “Donate to the KKK!”
• Any act which provides material aid to a designated entity or event;
  • E.g., “If you want to send care packages to the Sinaloa Cartel, use this address:”
• Putting out a call to action on behalf of a designated entity or event;
  • E.g., “Contact the Atomwaffen Division - (XXX) XXX-XXXX”
• Recruiting on behalf of a designated entity or event;
  • E.g., “If you want to fight for the Caliphate, DM me”
• Channeling information or resources, including official communications, on behalf of a designated entity or event
  • E.g., Directly quoting a designated entity without caption that condemns, neutrally discusses, or is a part of news reporting.

We remove Substantive Support of Tier 1 and Tier 2 entities and designated events.

Representation, defined as any of the below:

• Stating that you are a member of a designated entity, or are a designated entity;
  • E.g., “I am a grand dragon of the KKK.”
• Creating a Page, Profile, Event, Group, or other Facebook entity that is or purports to be owned by a Designated Entity or run on their behalf, or is or purports to be a designated event.
  • E.g., A Page named “American Nazi Party.”

We remove Representation of Tier 1 and 2 Designated Organizations, Hate-Banned Entities, and designated events.

Tier 1: Terrorism, organized hate, large-scale criminal activity, attempted multiple-victim violence, multiple victim violence, serial murders, and violating violent events

We do not allow individuals or organizations involved in organized crime, including those designated by the United States government as specially designated narcotics trafficking kingpins (SDNTKs); hate; or terrorism, including entities designated by the United States government as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) or Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs), to have a presence onthe platform. We also don't allow other people to represent these entities. We do not allow leaders or prominent members of these organizations to have a presence on the platform, symbols that represent them to be used on the platform, or content that praises them or their acts. In addition, we remove any coordination of substantive support for these individuals and organizations.

We do not allow content that praises, substantively supports, or represents events that Meta designates as terrorist attacks, hate events, multiple-victim violence or attempted multiple-victim violence, serial murders, hate crimes or violating violent events. Nor do we allow (1) praise, substantive support, or representation of the perpetrator(s) of such attacks; (2) perpetrator-generated content relating to such attacks; or (3) third-party imagery depicting the moment of such attacks on visible victims.

We also do not allow Praise, Substantive Support, or Representation of designated hateful ideologies.

Terrorist organizations and individuals, defined as a non-state actor that:

• Engages in, advocates, or lends substantial support to purposive and planned acts of violence,
• Which causes or attempts to cause death, injury or serious harm to civilians, or any other person not taking direct part in the hostilities in a situation of armed conflict, and/or significant damage to property linked to death, serious injury or serious harm to civilians
• With the intent to coerce, intimidate and/or influence a civilian population, government, or international organization
• In order to achieve a political, religious, or ideological aim.

Hate Entity, defined as an organization or individual that spreads and encourages hate against others based on their protected characteristics. The entity’s activities are characterized by at least some of the following behaviors:

• Violence, threatening rhetoric, or dangerous forms of harassment targeting people based on their protected characteristics;
• Repeated use of hate speech;
• Representation of Hate Ideologies or other designated Hate Entities, and/or
• Glorification or substantive support of other designated Hate Entities or Hate Ideologies.

Criminal Organizations, defined as an association of three or more people that:

• is united under a name, color(s), hand gesture(s) or recognized indicia; and
• has engaged in or threatens to engage in criminal activity such as homicide, drug trafficking, or kidnapping.

Multiple-Victim Violence and Serial Murders

• We consider an event to be multiple-victim violence or attempted multiple-victim violence if it results in three or more casualties in one incident, defined as deaths or serious injuries. Any Individual who has committed such an attack is considered to be a perpetrator or an attempted perpetrator of multiple-victim violence.
• We consider any individual who has committed two or more murders over multiple incidents or locations a serial murderer.

Hateful Ideologies

• While our designations of organizations and individuals focus on behavior, we also recognize that there are certain ideologies and beliefs that are inherently tied to violence and attempts to organize people around calls for violence or exclusion of others based on their protected characteristics. In these cases, we designate the ideology itself and remove content that supports this ideology from our platform. These ideologies include:
  • Nazism
  • White Supremacy
  • White Nationalism
  • White Separatism
• We remove explicit Praise, Substantive Support, and Representation of these ideologies, and remove individuals and organizations that ascribe to one or more of these hateful ideologies.

Tier 2: Violent Non-State Actors

Organizations and individuals designated by Meta as Violent Non-state Actors are not allowed to have a presence on Facebook, or have a presence maintained by others on their behalf. As these communities are actively engaged in violence, substantive support of these entities is similarly not allowed. We will also remove praise of violence carried out by these entities.

Violent Non-State Actors, defined as any non-state actor that:

• engages in purposive and planned acts of violence primarily against a government military or other armed communities; and
• that causes or attempts to
  • cause death to persons taking direct part in hostilities in an armed conflict, and/or
  • deprive communities of access to vital infrastructure and natural resources, and/or bring significant damage to property, linked to death, serious injury or serious harm to civilians

Tier 3: Militarized Social Movements, Violence-Inducing Conspiracy Networks, and Hate Banned Entities

Pages, Communities, Events, and Profiles or other Facebook entities that are - or claim to be - maintained by, or on behalf of, Militarized Social Movements and Violence-Inducing Conspiracy Networks are prohibited. Admins of these pages, communities and events will also be removed.

Click here to read more about how we address movements and organizations tied to violence.

We do not allow Representation of Organizations and individuals designated by Meta as Hate-Banned Entities.

Militarized Social Movements (MSMs), which include:

• Militia Communities, defined as non-state actors that use weapons as a part of their training, communication, or presence; and are structured or operate as unofficial military or security forces and:
  • Coordinate in preparation for violence or civil war; or
  • Distribute information about the tactical use of weapons for combat; or
  • Coordinate militarized tactical coordination in a present or future armed civil conflict or civil war.
• Communities supporting violent acts amid protests, defined as non-State actors that repeatedly:
  • Coordinate, promote, admit to or engage in:
  • Acts of street violence against civilians or law enforcement; or
  • Arson, Looting, or other destruction of property; or
  • Threaten to violently disrupt an election process; or
  • Promote bringing weapons to a location when the stated intent is to intimidate people amid a protest.

Violence-Inducing Conspiracy Networks (VICNs), defined as a Non-State Actor that:

• Organizes under a name, sign, mission statement, or symbol; and
• Promote theories that attribute violent or dehumanizing behavior to people or organizations that have been debunked by credible sources; and
• Has inspired multiple incidents of real-world violence by adherents motivated by the desire to draw attention to or redress the supposed harms promoted by these debunked theories.

Hate-Banned Entities, defined as entities that engage in repeated hateful conduct or rhetoric, but do not rise to the level of a Tier 1 entity because they have not engaged in or explicitly advocated for violence, or because they lack sufficient connections to previously designated organizations or figures.

• In certain cases, we will allow content that may otherwise violate the Community Standards when it is determined that the content is satirical. Content will only be allowed if the violating elements of the content are being satirized or attributed to something or someone else in order to mock or criticize them.