Community Standards
Policies that outline what is and isn't allowed on our apps.
Meta Advertising Standards
Policies for ad content and business assets.
Other policies
Other policies that apply to Meta technologies.
How Meta improves
How we update our policies, measure results, work with others, and more.
Age-Appropriate Content
Explore how we help teens have safe, positive experiences on Facebook and Instagram.
Our Approach To Dangerous Organizations and Individuals
How we approach dangerous organizations and individuals.
Our approach to the opioid epidemic
How we support communities in the face of the opioid epidemic.
Our approach to elections
How we help prevent interference, empower people to vote and more.
Our approach to misinformation
How we work with independent fact-checkers, and more, to identify and take action on misinformation.
Our approach to newsworthy content
How we assess content for newsworthiness.
Our approach to Facebook Feed ranking
How we reduce problematic content in News Feed.
Our approach to explaining ranking
How we build AI systems.
Content Library and Content Library API
Comprehensive access to public data from Facebook and Instagram
Ad Library tools
Comprehensive and searchable database of all ads currently running across Meta technologies
Other research tools and datasets
Additional tools for in-depth research on Meta technologies and programs
Community Standards Enforcement Report
Quarterly report on how well we're doing at enforcing our policies on the Facebook app and Instagram.
Intellectual Property
Report on how well we're helping people protect their intellectual property.
Government Requests for User Data
Report on government request for people's data.
Content Restrictions Based on Local Law
Report on when we restrict content that's reported to us as violating local law.
Internet Disruptions
Report on intentional internet restrictions that limit people's ability to access the internet.
Widely Viewed Content Report
Quarterly report on what people see on Facebook, including the content that receives the widest distribution during the quarter.
Regulatory and Other Transparency Reports
Download current and past regulatory reports for Facebook and Instagram.
Account Integrity
Policy details
Change log
CHANGE LOG
Change log
Today
Current version
Sep 25, 2024
Mar 28, 2024
Jan 25, 2024
Aug 31, 2023
Dec 22, 2022
Oct 27, 2022
Feb 24, 2022
Oct 28, 2021
Jul 29, 2021
Mar 25, 2021
Dec 17, 2020
Nov 18, 2020
May 28, 2020
Oct 25, 2019
Jul 1, 2019
Aug 31, 2018
Jul 27, 2018
Jun 29, 2018
In order to maintain a safe environment and empower free expression, we restrict or remove accounts that are harmful to the community. We have built a combination of automated and manual systems to restrict and remove accounts that are used to egregiously or persistently violate our policies across any of our products.
Because account removal is a serious action, whenever possible, we aim to give our community opportunities to learn our rules and follow our Community Standards. For example, a notification is issued each time we remove content, and in most cases we also provide people with information about the nature of the violation and any restrictions that are applied. Our enforcement actions are designed to be proportional to the severity of the violation, the history of violations on the account, and the risk or harm posed to the community. Continued violations, despite repeated warnings and restrictions, or violations that pose severe safety risks will lead to an account being disabled.
Learn more about how Meta enforces its policies and restricts accounts in the Transparency Center.
- Violate our Community Standards involving egregious harms, including those we refer to law enforcement due to the risk of imminent harm to individual or public safety
- Violate our Community Standards involving any harms that warrant referral to law enforcement due to the risk of imminent harm to individual of public safety
- Violate our Advertising Standards involving deceptive or dangerous business harms
- Persistently violate our Community Standards by posting violating content and/or managing violating entities or business assets
- Persistently violates our Advertising Standards
- Activity or behavior indicative of a clear violating purpose
- Owned by the same person or entity as an account that has been disabled
- Created or repurposed to evade a previous account or entity removal, including those assessed to have common ownership and content as previously removed accounts or entities
- Created to contact a user that has blocked an account
- Otherwise used to evade our enforcement actions or review processes
- Close linkage with a network of accounts or other entities that violate or evade our policies
- Coordination within a network of accounts or other entities that persistently or egregiously violate our policies
- Activity or behavior indicative of a clear violating purpose through a network of accounts
- Owned by a convicted sex offender
- Owned by a Designated Entity or run on their behalf
- Prohibited from receiving our products, services or software under applicable laws
- Compromised accounts
- Creating or using an account or other entity through automated means, such as scripting (unless the scripting activity occurs through authorized routes and does not otherwise violate our policies)
- Empty accounts with prolonged dormancy
User experiencesSee 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, comment, story, message, profile 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
Check your report
Make sure the details are correct before you click Submit. It’s important that the problem selected truly reflects what was posted.
5
Report submitted
After these steps, we submit the report. We also lay out what people should expect next.
6
More options
We remove things if they go against our Community Standards, but you can also Unfollow, Block or Unfriend to avoid seeing posts in future.
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.
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 account integrity and authentic identityLearn what you can do if you see something on Facebook that goes against our Community Standards.
