Facebook Clarifies Rules On Cyberbullying, Revenge Porn, Nudity And More

Facebook on Monday clarified its community standards guidelines, providing more details about posts that won’t be allowed. Threatening to harm people physically or financially, online bullying, shaming and degradation and anything that encourages suicide or eating disorders are among the content the social networking company has marked as taboo.

“We’re trying to strike the balance based on the way our community works,” Monika Bickert, Facebook’s head of global policy management, told the New York Times Monday. “The landscape is complicated.”

Nudity and pornography have never been allowed, but Facebook said it will also remove photos of users “displaying genitals” or “focusing in on fully exposed buttocks.” It will also continue to pull images of female breasts if the nipple is displayed. But the social networking site added that “we always allow photos of women actively engaged in breast-feeding or showing breasts with post-mastectomy scarring.”

The Islamic State, a terrorist group, has been banned from Facebook. Supporting or praising such groups is also prohibited.

Facebook is also explicitly banning revenge porn, or intimate photos shared in revenge or without explicit permission from the party it shows. Facebook will rely on users to report these types of photos, and the company said it doesn’t scan or search for policy violations. This procedure can take up to 48 hours.

In the past, Facebook has been somewhat inconsistent with its standards. In December, it blocked a Russian page that was promoting an anti-government protest, but allowed copycat pages to remain online.

In October, it allowed San Francisco drag queens to use their stage names while cracking down on users who posted anonymously. Facebook hopes its in-depth explanation of its regulations will giver users a better understanding of what gets removed.

A hefty percentage of the world's population uses Facebook, with 1.39 billion active users internationally.