Violence and incitement

Threats that could lead to death (and other forms of high-severity violence) and admission of past violence targeting people or places where threat is defined as any of the following:

• Statements of intent to commit high-severity violence. This includes content where a symbol represents the target and/or includes a visual of an armament or method to represent violence.
• Calls for high-severity violence, including content where no target is specified but a symbol represents the target and/or includes a visual of an armament or method that represents violence.
• Statements advocating for high-severity violence.
• Aspirational or conditional statements to commit high-severity violence.
• Statements admitting to committing high-severity violence, except when shared in a context of redemption, self-defence or when committed by law enforcement, military or state security personnel.

Content that asks for, offers or admits to offering services of high-severity violence (for example, hitmen, mercenaries, assassins, female genital mutilation) or advocates for the use of these services

Admissions, statements of intent or advocacy, calls to action or aspirational or conditional statements to kidnap or abduct a target or that promotes, supports or advocates for kidnapping or abduction

Content that depicts kidnappings or abductions if it is clear that the content is not being shared by a victim or their family as a plea for help, or shared for informational, condemnation or awareness-raising purposes

Threats of high-severity violence using digitally produced or altered imagery to target living people with armaments, methods of violence or dismemberment

Threats that lead to serious injury (mid-severity violence) and admission of past violence toward private individuals, unnamed specified persons, minor public figures, high-risk persons or high-risk groups where threat is defined as any of the following:

• Statements of intent to commit violence or
• Statements advocating for violence or
• Calls for mid-severity violence, including content where no target is specified but a symbol represents the target, or
• Aspirational or conditional statements to commit violence or
• Statements admitting to committing mid-severity violence, except when shared in a context of redemption, self-defence, fight-sports context or when committed by law enforcement, military or state security personnel.

Content about other target(s) apart from private individuals, minor public figures, high-risk persons or high-risk groups and any credible:

• Statements of intent to commit violence or
• Calls for action of violence or
• Statements advocating for violence or
• Aspirational or conditional statements to commit violence

Threats that lead to physical harm (or other forms of lower-severity violence) towards private individuals (self-reporting required) or minor public figures, where threat is defined as any of the following:

• Private individuals (name and/or face match are required) or minor public figures that includes:
  • Statements of intent or advocacy, calls for action, aspirational or conditional statements to commit low-severity violence

Instructions on how to make or use weapons if there is evidence of a goal to seriously injure or kill people through:

• Language explicitly stating that goal, or
• Photos or videos that show or simulate the end result (serious injury or death) as part of the instruction.
• Unless when shared in a context of recreational self-defence, for military training purposes, commercial video games or news coverage (posted by a Page or with a news logo).

Providing instructions on how to make or use explosives, unless there is clear context that the content is for a non-violent purpose (for example, part of commercial video games, clear scientific/educational purpose, fireworks or specifically for fishing)

Any content containing statements of intent, calls for action, conditional or aspirational statements, or advocating for violence due to voting, voter registration or the administration or outcome of an election

Statements of intent or advocacy, calls to action, or aspirational or conditional statements to bring or take up armaments to locations (including but not limited to places of worship, educational facilities, polling places or locations used to count votes or administer an election) or locations where there are temporary signals of a heightened risk of violence or offline harm. This may be the case, for example, when there is a known protest and counter-protest planned or violence broke out at a protest in the same city within the last seven days This includes a visual of an armament or method that represents violence that targets these locations.

Statements of intent or advocacy, calls to action, or aspirational or conditional statements to forcibly enter locations (including but not limited to places of worship, educational facilities, polling places or locations used to count votes or administer an election) where there are temporary signals of a heightened risk of violence or offline harm. This may be the case, for example, when there is a known protest and counter-protest planned or violence broke out at a protest in the same city within the last seven days

Do not post:

• Violent threats against law enforcement officers.
• Violent threats against people accused of a crime. We remove this content when we have reason to believe that the content is intended to cause physical harm.

• Coded statements where the method of violence or harm is not clearly articulated, but the threat is veiled or implicit. Meta looks at the below signals to determine whether there is a threat of harm in the content.

• Shared in a retaliatory context (e.g. expressions of desire to do something harmful to others in response to a grievance or threat that may be real, perceived or anticipated)
• References to historical or fictional incidents of violence (e.g. content that threatens others by referring to known historical incidents of violence that have been executed throughout history or in fictional settings)
• Acts as a threatening call to action (e.g. content inviting or encouraging others to carry out harmful acts or to join in carrying out the harmful acts)
• Indicates knowledge of or shares sensitive information that could expose others to harm (e.g. content that either makes note of or implies awareness of personal information that might make a threat of physical violence more credible. This includes implying knowledge of a person's residential address, their place of employment or education, daily commute routes or current location)
• Local context or subject matter expertise confirms that the statement in question could be threatening and/or could lead to imminent violence or physical harm.
• The subject of the threat reports the content to us.

• Threats against election workers, including claims of election-related wrongdoing against private individuals when combined with a signal of violence or additional context that confirms that the claim could lead to imminent violence or physical harm.
• Implicit statements of intent or advocacy, calls to action, or aspirational or conditional statements to bring armaments to locations, including, but not limited to, places of worship, educational facilities, polling places or locations used to count votes or administer an election (or encouraging others to do the same). We may also restrict calls to bring armaments to certain locations where there are temporarily signals of a heightened risk of violence or offline harm. This may be the case, for example, when there is a known protest and counter-protest planned or violence broke out at a protest in the same city within the last seven days