Policy details

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Policy rationale

We recognise the importance of Facebook as a place to discuss and draw attention to sexual violence and exploitation. In an effort to create space for this conversation and promote a safe environment, we allow victims to share their experiences, but remove content that depicts, threatens or promotes sexual violence, sexual assault or sexual exploitation. We also remove content that displays, advocates for or coordinates sexual acts with non-consenting parties to avoid facilitating non-consensual sexual acts.

To protect victims and survivors, we remove images that depict incidents of sexual violence and intimate images shared without the consent of the person(s) pictured. As noted in the introduction, we also work with external safety experts to discuss and improve our policies and enforcement around online safety issues, and we may remove content when they provide information that content is linked to harmful activity. We have written about the technology we use to protect against intimate images and the research that has informed our work. We've also put together a guide to reporting and removing intimate images shared without your consent.

Do not post:

In instances where content consists of any form of non-consensual sexual touching, necrophilia or forced stripping, including:

  • Depictions (including real photos/videos except in a real-world art context), or
  • Sharing, offering, asking for or threatening to share imagery, or
  • Descriptions, unless shared by or in support of the victim/survivor, or
  • Advocacy (including aspirational and conditional statements), or
  • Statements of intent, or
  • Calls for action, or
  • Admitting participation, or
  • Mocking victims of any of the above.
  • We will also take down content shared by a third party that identifies victims or survivors of sexual assault when reported by the victim or survivor.

Content that attempts to exploit people by any of the following:

  • Sextortion: Coercing money, favours or intimate imagery from people with threats to expose their intimate imagery or intimate information
  • Sharing, threatening, stating an intent to share, offering or asking for non-consensual intimate imagery that fulfils all of the three following conditions:
    • Imagery is non-commercial or produced in a private setting.
    • Person in the imagery is (near-)nude, engaged in sexual activity or in a sexual pose.
    • Lack of consent to share the imagery is indicated by meeting any of the signals:
      • Vengeful context (such as caption, comments or Page title).
      • Independent sources (such as law enforcement record) including entertainment media (such as leak of images confirmed by media).
      • A visible match between the person depicted in the image and the person who has reported the content to us.
      • The person who reported the content to us shares the same name as the person depicted in the image.
  • Secretly taken non-commercial imagery of a real person's commonly sexualised body parts (breasts, groin, buttocks or thighs) or of a real person engaged in sexual activity. This imagery is commonly known as "creepshots" or "upskirts" and includes photos or videos that mock, sexualise or expose the person depicted in the imagery.
  • Threatening or stating an intent to share private sexual conversations that meet the following criteria:
    • Lack of consent is indicated by:
      • Vengeful context and/or threatening context, or
      • A visible match between the person depicted in the image and the person who has reported the content to us.
      • The person who reported the content to us shares the same name as the person depicted in the image.

For the following content, we include a warning screen so that people are aware that the content may be disturbing:

Narratives and statements that contain a description of non-consensual sexual touching (written or verbal) that includes details beyond mere naming or mentioning the act if:

  • Shared by the victim, or
  • Shared by a third party (other than the victim) in support of the victim or condemnation of the act or for general awareness to be determined by context/caption.

Content mocking the concept of non-consensual sexual touching

For the following Community Standards, we require additional information and/or context to enforce:

We may restrict visibility to people over the age of 18 and include a warning label on certain fictional videos (e.g. digital and hand-drawn imagery, film and TV show scenes, comic books, music videos) that depict non-consensual sexual touching.

In addition to our at-scale policy of removing content that threatens or advocates rape or other non-consensual sexual touching, we may also disable the posting account.

We may also enforce on content shared by a third party that identifies survivors of sexual assault when reported by an authorised representative or trusted partner.

User experiences

See some examples of what enforcement looks like for people on Facebook, such as: what it looks like to report something that you don't think should be on Facebook, to be told that 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, a comment, a story, a message or something else.

2
Getting 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
Report submitted

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

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 made the wrong decision, 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 violates our Community Standards, we'll tell them.

2
Additional context

We'll also address common misperceptions around enforcement.

3
Explain the policy

We'll give people easy-to-understand explanations about why their content was removed.

4
Ask for input

After we've established the context for our decision and explained our policy, we'll ask people what they'd like to do next, including letting us know if they think we made a mistake.

5
Tell us more

If people disagree with the decision, we'll ask them to tell us more.

6
Set expectations

Here, we set expectations on what will happen next.

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 adult sexual exploitation

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