Content Distribution Guidelines: Changes, corrections, and adjustments

UPDATED

MAR 26, 2024

We summarize changes we’ve made to the Content Distribution Guidelines and detail any specific adjustments to the types of content we demote.

3/2024: Updated our guidelines for probable violating content

This quarter, we made the following changes:

  • We updated the guideline for Content Borderline to the Community Standards to reflect our approach to Eating Disorder and Self Harm content

12/2023: Updated our guidelines for inauthentic sharing

This quarter, we made the following changes:

  • We updated the guideline for Inauthentic Sharing because we no longer demote posts to groups and link posts that have been shared at high frequency.

10/2023: Removed three guidelines

This quarter, we made the following changes:

  • We removed the guideline for Low Quality Videos, because we no longer reduce the distribution of these videos.

  • We removed the guideline for Pages Posting Unoriginal Videos, because we no longer reduce the distribution of these pages.

  • We removed the guideline for Content Borderline to the Community Standards, because we take a personalized ranking approach to this type of content.

6/2023: Updated our guidelines for probable violating and borderline content

This quarter we made the following changes (note: individual changes to each guideline can be found in that guideline’s changelog):

3/2023: Removed one guideline

This quarter we made the following change (note: individual changes to each guideline can be found in that guideline’s changelog):

  • We removed the guideline for Posts from Broadly Untrusted News Publishers, because we are no longer use it as a ranking signal.

12/2022: Consolidated inauthentic behavior guidelines and clarified language around personalized demotions

This quarter we made the following changes (note: individual changes to each guideline can be found in that guideline’s changelog):

  • We consolidated three overlapping guidelines into one for improved clarity. Posts from People who Hypershare into Groups and Posts from Pages that Artificially Inflate Their Distribution are now part of the Inauthentic Sharing guideline.

  • We updated the guideline for Content Posted by Repeat Violators of our Policies to include cases where we may take action on a single strike if it is a severe violation.

  • We updated language on the Our Approach to Ranking page under "Types of Content We Demote" to mention personalized demotions.

9/2022: Removed three guidelines

This quarter we made the following changes:

  • We removed the guideline for Links to Suspected Cloaking Domains, because we no longer reduce the distribution of these links.

  • We removed the guideline for Low Quality Browsing Experiences, because we no longer reduce the distribution of these links.

  • We removed the guideline for Posts from People who Likely Have Multiple Accounts, because this is already covered by the Community Standards.

6/2022: Removed the guideline on the demotion of links to sexual or shocking landing pages and clarified language of several guidelines

This quarter we made the following changes (note: individual changes to each guideline can be found in that guideline’s changelog):

  • We removed the guideline for Links to Landing Pages Containing Sexual/Shocking Content, because we no longer reduce the distribution of these links.

  • We made minor edits to the language of several guidelines to provide more clarity on what content is demoted and why.

3/2022: Updated our guideline for content likely violating our Community Standards and removed a guideline affecting news articles lacking clear authorship

This quarter we made the following changes (note: individual changes to each guideline can be found in that guideline’s changelog):

  • We updated the guideline for Content Likely Violating our Community Standards to include new demotions on false claims about Covid-19 and posts containing restricted goods or services.

  • We deprecated the guideline for News Articles Lacking Transparent Authorship, because we no longer reduce the distribution of news articles that do not have an authorship byline.

12/2021: Revised our definitions of content we identify as borderline and likely violating our Community Standards, as well as sensational health and unoriginal video content

This quarter we made the following changes (note: individual changes to each guideline can be found in that guideline’s changelog):