Policy details

Change log

CHANGE LOG

Change log

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Nov 23, 2022
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Policy Rationale

When someone passes away, Facebook friends and family can request that we memorialize the Facebook account. Once memorialized, the word "Remembering" appears above the name on the person's profile so the account is now a memorial site and protects against attempted logins and fraudulent activity. To respect the choices someone made while alive, we aim to preserve their account after they pass away.

We have also made it possible for people to identify a legacy contact to look after their account after they pass away. To support the bereaved, in some instances we may remove or change certain content when the legacy contact or family members request it.

Visit Hard Questions for more information about our memorialization policy and process. And see our Newsroom for the latest tools we are building to support people during these difficult times.

For victims of murder and suicide we will remove the following content if it appears on the deceased’s profile photo, cover photo, or among recent timeline posts when requested by a legacy contact or family member of the deceased:

  • Visual depiction of the object used in the deceased’s death.
  • Imagery of the convicted or alleged murderer of the deceased.
  • Content related to the deceased’s death.

For victims of murder, we will also remove the convicted or alleged murderer from the deceased’s profile if referenced in relationship status or among friends.

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

When brought to our attention by the legacy contact or a family member of the deceased, we will:

  • Remove violating comments on a memorialized profile, which would typically require the individual to self report so that we know that they are unwanted.
  • Remove praise or support for the death, disease, or harm of the deceased person on a memorialized profile.
  • Change the deceased individual’s privacy settings from public to friends-only when there is harmful content on the profile.
  • Change a violating account name on the profile of the deceased individual.

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, a comment, a story, a message 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
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 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 memorialization

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