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Change log
Change log
Current version
Bullying and harassment happen in many places and come in many different forms from making threats and releasing personally identifiable information to sending threatening messages and making unwanted malicious contact. We do not tolerate this kind of behavior because it prevents people from feeling safe and respected on Facebook.
We distinguish between public figures and private individuals because we want to allow discussion, which often includes critical commentary of people who are featured in the news or who have a large public audience. For public figures, we remove attacks that are severe as well as certain attacks where the public figure is directly tagged in the post or comment. We define public figures as state and national level government officials, political candidates for those offices, people with over one million fans or followers on social media and people who receive substantial news coverage.
For private individuals, our protection goes further: We remove content that's meant to degrade or shame, including, for example, claims about someone's sexual personal activity. We recognize that bullying and harassment can have more of an emotional impact on minors, which is why our policies provide heightened protection for users between the ages of 13 and 18.
Context and intent matter, and we allow people to post and share if it is clear that something was shared in order to condemn or draw attention to bullying and harassment. In certain instances, we require self-reporting because it helps us understand that the person targeted feels bullied or harassed. In addition to reporting such behavior and content, we encourage people to use tools available on Facebook to help protect against it.
We also have a Bullying Prevention Hub, which is a resource for teens, parents, and educators seeking support for issues related to bullying and other conflicts. It offers step-by-step guidance, including information on how to start important conversations about bullying. Learn more about what we are doing to protect people from bullying and harassment here.
Note: This policy does not apply to individuals who are part of designated organizations under the Dangerous Organizations and Individuals policy or individuals who died prior to 1900.
Tier 1: Target anyone maliciously by:
Tier 2: Target private individuals, limited scope public figures (for example, individuals whose primary fame is limited to their activism, journalism, or those who become famous through involuntary means) or public figures who are minors with:
Tier 3: Target public figures by purposefully exposing them to:
Tier 4: Target private individuals or limited scope public figures (for example, individuals whose primary fame is limited to their activism, journalism, or those who become famous through involuntary means) with:
Tier 5: Target private adults (who must self-report) or any private minors or involuntary minor public figures with:
Tier 6: Target private individuals who are minors with:
Tier 7: Target private individuals (who must self-report) with:
Do not:
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.
Percentage of times people saw violating content
Number of pieces of violating content we took action on
Percentage of violating content we found before people reported it
Number of pieces of content people appealed after we took action on it
Number of pieces of content we restored after we originally took action on it
Percentage of times people saw violating content
Number of pieces of violating content we took action on
Percentage of violating content we found before people reported it
Number of pieces of content people appealed after we took action on it
Number of pieces of content we restored after we originally took action on it
We have an option to report, whether it’s on a post, a comment, a story, a message or something else.
We help people report things that they don’t think should be on our platform.
We ask people to tell us more about what’s wrong. This helps us send the report to the right place.
After these steps, we submit the report. We also lay out what people should expect next.
After we’ve reviewed the report, we’ll send the reporting user a notification.
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.
If people think we got the decision wrong, they can request another review.
We’ll send a final response after we’ve re-reviewed the content, again to the Support Inbox.
When someone posts something that violates our Community Standards, we’ll tell them.
We’ll also address common misperceptions around enforcement.
We’ll give people easy to understand explanations about why their content was removed.
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.
If people disagree with the decision, we’ll ask them to tell us more.
Here, we set expectations on what will happen next.
We have the same policies around the world, for everyone on Facebook.
Our global team of over 15,000 reviewers work every day to keep people on Facebook safe.
Outside experts, academics, NGOs and policymakers help inform the Facebook Community Standards.
Learn what you can do if you see something on Facebook that goes against our Community Standards.