Policy details

Change log

CHANGE LOG

Change log

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Policy Rationale

As noted in Section 8 of our Community Standards (Adult Sexual Exploitation), people use Facebook to discuss and draw attention to sexual violence and exploitation. We recognize the importance of and allow for this discussion.We also allow for the discussion of sex worker rights advocacy and sex work regulation. We draw the line, however, when content facilitates, encourages or coordinates sexual encounters or commercial sexual services between adults. We do this to avoid facilitating transactions that may involve trafficking, coercion and non-consensual sexual acts.

We also restrict sexually-explicit language that may lead to sexual solicitation because some audiences within our global community may be sensitive to this type of content, and it may impede the ability for people to connect with their friends and the broader community.

Do not post:

Content that offers or asks for adult commercial services, such as requesting, offering or asking for rates for escort service and paid sexual fetish or domination services. (Content that recruits or offers other people for third-party commercial sex work is separately considered under the Human Exploitation policy).

Attempted coordination of or recruitment for, adult sexual activities, except when promoting an event or venue, including but not limited to:

  • Filmed sexual activities.
  • Pornographic activities, strip club shows, live sex performances or erotic dances.
  • Sexual, erotic or tantric massages.

Explicit sexual solicitation by, including but not limited to the following, offering or asking for:

  • Offering or asking for sex or sexual partners (including partners who share fetish or sexual interests).
  • Sex chat or conversations.
  • Nude photos/videos/imagery/sexual fetish items.
  • Sexual slang terms.

We allow expressing desire for sexual activity, promoting sex education, discussing sexual practices or experiences, or offering classes or programs that teach techniques or discuss sex.

Content that is implicitly or indirectly offering or asking for sexual solicitation and meets both of the following criteria. If both criteria are not met, it is not deemed to be violating. For example, if content is a hand-drawn image depicting sexual activity but does not ask or offer sexual solicitation, it is not violating:

  • Criteria 1: Offer or ask
    • Content that implicitly or indirectly (typically through providing a method of contact) offers or asks for sexual solicitation.
  • Criteria 2: Suggestive Elements
    • Content that makes the aforementioned offer or ask using one or more of the following sexually suggestive elements:
      • Regional sexualized slang,
      • Mentions or depictions of sexual activity such as sexual roles, sex positions, fetish scenarios, state of arousal, act of sexual intercourse or activity (e.g. sexual penetration or self-pleasuring), commonly sexual emojis
      • Including content (hand drawn, digital or real-world art) that depicts sexual activity as defined in Adult Nudity and Sexual Activity policy
      • Poses,
      • Audio of sexual activity or other content that violates the Adult Nudity and Sexual Activity policy

An offer or ask for pornographic material (including, but not limited to, sharing of links to external pornographic websites)

Sexually-explicit language that goes into graphic detail beyond mere reference to:

  • A state of sexual arousal (e.g wetness or erection) or
  • An act of sexual intercourse (e.g sexual penetration, self-pleasuring or exercising fetish scenarios).
  • Except for content shared in a humorous, satirical, or educational context, as a sexual metaphor or as sexual cursing.

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

  • In certain cases, we will allow content that may otherwise violate the Community Standards when it is determined that the content is satirical. Content will only be allowed if the violating elements of the content are being satirized or attributed to something or someone else in order to mock or criticize them.

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 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 sexual solicitation

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