Policy details

Change log

CHANGE LOG

Change log

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Policy Rationale
To encourage safety and deter potentially harmful activities, we prohibit attempts by individuals, manufacturers, and retailers to purchase, sell, raffle, gift, transfer or trade certain goods and services on our platform. We do not tolerate the exchange or sale of any drugs that may result in substance abuse covered under our policies below. Brick-and-mortar and online retailers may promote firearms, alcohol, and tobacco items available for sale off of our services; however, we restrict visibility of this content for minors. We allow discussions about the sale of these goods in stores or by online retailers, advocating for changes to regulations of goods and services covered in this policy, and advocating for or concerning the use of pharmaceutical drugs in the context of medical treatment, including discussion of physical or mental side effects.
Restricted Goods and Services consist of the following categories:
  • Drugs and Pharmaceuticals
  • Weapons, Ammunitions, or Explosives
  • Tobacco and Related Products
  • Alcohol
  • Health and Wellness
  • Online Gambling and Games
  • Endangered and protected species (wildlife and plants)
  • Historic Artifacts
  • Hazardous Goods and Materials
  • Body Parts and Fluids

Each category is detailed below.

Drugs and Pharmaceuticals
We do not allow:

High-risk drugs (drugs that have a high potential for misuse, addiction, or are associated with serious health risks, including overdose; e.g., cocaine, fentanyl, heroin).

Content that:

  • Attempts to buy, sell, trade, co-ordinate the trade of, donate, gift or ask for high-risk drugs.
  • Admits to buying, trading or co-ordinating the trade of high-risk drugs by the poster of the content by themselves or through others.
  • Admits to personal use without acknowledgment of or reference to recovery, treatment, or other assistance to combat usage. This content may not speak positively about, encourage use of, coordinate or provide instructions to make or use high-risk drugs.
  • Coordinates or promotes (by which we mean speaks positively about, encourages the use of, or provides instructions to use or make) high-risk drugs.

Non-medical drugs (drugs or substances that are not being used for an intended medical purposes or are used to achieve a high - this includes precursor chemicals or substances that are used for the production of these drugs.)

Content that:

  • Attempts to buy, sell, trade, co-ordinate the trade of, donate, gift or asks for non-medical drugs.
  • Admits to buying, trading or co-ordinating the trade of non-medical drugs by the poster of the content by themselves or through others.
  • Admits to personal use without acknowledgment of or reference to recovery, treatment, or other assistance to combat usage. This content may not speak positively about, encourage use of, coordinate or provide instructions to make or use non-medical drugs.
  • Coordinates or promotes (by which we mean speaks positively about, encourages the use of, or provides instructions to use or make) non-medical drugs.

Prescription drugs (drugs that require a prescription or medical professionals to administer)

Content that:

  • Attempts to buy, sell or trade prescription drugs except when:
    • Listing the price of vaccines in an explicit education or discussion context.
    • Offering delivery when posted by legitimate healthcare e-commerce businesses.
  • Attempts to donate or gift prescription drugs, except in the event of an economic, health, societal or natural disaster crisis.
  • Asks for prescription drugs, except when content discusses the affordability, accessibility or efficacy of prescription drugs in a medical context

Entheogens

  • Content that attempts to buy, sell, trade, donate or gift or asks for entheogens.
  • Note: Debating or advocating for the legality or discussing scientific or medical merits of entheogens is allowed.

Cannabis and Cannabis Derived Products

  • Content that attempts to buy, sell, trade, donate or gift or asks for marijuana and products containing THC or related psychoactive components.

For the following content, we restrict visibility to adults 18 years of age and older:

Entheogens

  • Content that shows admission to personal use of, coordinates or promotes (by which we mean speaks positively about), or encourages the use of entheogens.
    • Except when any of the above occurs in a fictional or documentary context.

Cannabis and Cannabis Derived Products

  • Content that coordinates or promotes (by which we mean speaks positively about, encourages the use of, or provides instructions to use or make) marijuana and products containing THC or related psychoactive components.
  • Content that attempts to buy, sell, trade, donate, gift or ask for ingestible cannabidiol (CBD) or similar cannabinoid products.
Weapons, Ammunitions, or Explosives
We do not allow:

Content that:

  • Attempts to buy, sell, or trade, firearms, firearm parts, ammunition, explosives, or lethal enhancements except when:
    • posted by a Page, Group or Instagram profile representing legitimate brick-and-mortar entities, including retail businesses, websites, brands or government agencies (e.g. police department, fire department) or a private individual sharing content on behalf of legitimate brick-and-mortar entities.
  • Attempts to donate or gift firearms, firearm parts, ammunition, explosives, or lethal enhancements except when posted in the following contexts:
    • Donating, trading in or buying back firearms and ammunition by a Page, Group or Instagram profile representing legitimate brick-and-mortar entities, including retail businesses, websites, brands or government agencies, or a private individual sharing content on behalf of legitimate brick-and-mortar entities.
    • An auction or raffle of firearms by legitimate brick-and-mortar entities, including retail businesses, government-affiliated organizations or non-profits, or private individuals affiliated with or sponsored by legitimate brick-and-mortar entities.
  • Asks for firearms, firearm parts, ammunition, explosives, or lethal enhancements
  • Sells, gifts, exchanges, transfers, coordinates, promotes (by which we mean speaks positively about, encourages the use of) or provides access to 3D printing or computer-aided manufacturing instructions for firearms or firearms parts regardless of context or poster.
  • Attempts to buy, sell, or trade machine gun conversion devices

For the following content, we restrict visibility to adults 21 years of age and older:

Weapons, Ammunitions, or Explosives

  • Content posted by or promoting legitimate brick-and-mortar store, entities, including retail businesses websites, brands, or government agencies which attempt to buy, sell, trade, donate or gift (including in the context of an auction or a raffle) firearms, firearm parts, ammunition, explosives, or lethal enhancements.
For the following content, we restrict visibility to adults 18 years of age and older:

Bladed Items:

  • Content that attempts to buy, sell, trade, coordinate, donate, gift or asks for: bladed items and any other weapons (e.g., pepper spray or knuckle rings).
Tobacco and Related Products
We do not allow:

Content that:

  • Attempts to buy, sell or trade tobacco/nicotine related products, or products that simulate smoking, including all kinds of “ENDS” Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems Products (e.g., electronic cigarettes, vapes, and nicotine free-vapes).
    • Except when posted by a Page, Group, or Instagram profile representing legitimate brick-and-mortar entities, including retail businesses, websites, brands, or a private individual sharing content on behalf of legitimate brick-and-mortar entities, including offering delivery services and brand giveaways.
  • Attempts to donate or gift tobacco/nicotine products, or “ENDS” products.
    • Except when posted by a Page, Group, or Instagram profile representing legitimate brick-and-mortar entities, including retail businesses, websites, brands, or a private individual sharing content on behalf of legitimate brick-and-mortar entities, including offering delivery services and brand giveaways.
  • Asks for tobacco/nicotine products, or products that simulate smoking, including all kinds of “ENDS” products (nicotine-free vapes).
For the following content, we restrict visibility to adults 18 years of age and older:
  • Content posted by or promoting legitimate brick-and-mortar entities, including retail businesses websites or brands, which attempt to buy, sell, trade, donate or gift of alcohol or tobacco products.
  • Content depicting the consumption of tobacco, nicotine products, or “ENDS” products.
  • Content that coordinates or promotes the use of tobacco, nicotine products, “ENDS” products, or tobacco brands.
Alcohol
We do not allow:

Content that:

  • Attempts to buy, sell or trade alcohol except when:
    • Posted by a Page, Group, or Instagram profile representing legitimate brick-and-mortar entities, including retail businesses, websites or brands, or a private individual sharing content on behalf of legitimate brick-and-mortar entities, including offering delivery services and brand giveaways
    • Content refers to alcohol or offering an invitation to an alcohol venue where alcohol will be exchanged or consumed on location at an event, restaurant, bar, or party
  • Attempts to donate or gift alcohol or tobacco except when posted by a Page, Group, or Instagram profile representing legitimate brick-and-mortar entities, including retail businesses, websites or brands, or a private individual sharing content on behalf of legitimate brick-and-mortar entities
  • Asks for alcohol products and beverages
For the following content, we restrict visibility to adults 18 years of age and older:
  • Content posted by or promoting legitimate brick-and-mortar entities, including retail businesses websites or brands, which attempt to buy, sell, trade, donate or gift alcohol products or beverages
  • Content depicting the consumption of alcohol products or beverages or sharing recipes for alcoholic beverages
  • Content referring to alcohol products or offering an invitation to an alcohol venue where alcohol will be exchanged or consumed
Health and Wellness
For the following content, we restrict visibility to adults 18 years of age and older:
Weight loss products or services

Content that:

  • Attempts to buy, sell, trade, donate, gift, mention, ask for, weight loss products or services
  • Admits to or depicts using a weight loss product, in a favorable context or discusses its side effects
  • Shows coordination or promotion (by which we mean speaks positively, encourages the use of or provides instructions to use or make) a diet product
  • Depict a before and after body-change comparison in the context of weight loss, showcasing weight loss after using a product in a manner that may make people feel bad about their appearance or imply negative self-perception.

Cosmetic Products, Procedures, or Surgeries

Content that:

  • Attempts to buy, sell, trade, donate, gift, mention, or ask for cosmetic products, procedures, or surgeries. This includes:
    • Skin Whitening products such as; bleaching creams
    • Cosmetic procedures with the intention to treat, or restore function or structure of people’s faces or bodies.
  • Admits to or depicts using a cosmetic procedure or surgery, highlighting its positive or negative impact, or side effects
  • Shows coordination or promotion (by which we mean speaks positively, encourages the use of or provides instructions to use or perform) of a cosmetic procedure or surgery
  • Depict the before and after transformation of skin conditions after the usage of a cosmetic product, procedure, or surgery in a manner that may make people feel bad about their appearance or imply negative self-perception

Note: Fitness services such as Pilates, and temporary cosmetics such as makeup are not covered by this policy.

Adult sexual arousal products

Content that:

  • attempts to buy, sell, promote, trade, donate, gift or ask for adult sexual arousal products, that can stimulate a person’s sexual pleasure or increasing a person’s sexual arousal this includes:
    • Sex toys
    • Erotic products
    • Non-surgical genital enhancement products, such as products that stimulate sexual desire or improve sexual performance
    • Products where the primary focus is to stimulate sexual desire or arousal
Online Gambling and Games
For the following content, we restrict visibility to adults 18 years of age and older:
Online Gambling and Games
  • Content that attempts to sell, trade, depict or promote online gaming and gambling services where anything of monetary value (including cash or digital/virtual currencies, e.g., bitcoin) is required to play and anything of monetary value forms part of the prize., This includes but is not limited to:
    • Games of skill, lotteries/raffles, betting, sports betting, casino games, games of chance, or sweepstakes/prize draws
    • Gambling Games offering a limited trial period and requiring payment thereafter

Social Casino Games
  • Content that attempts to sell, trade, depict or promote social casino games that simulate gambling games such as slot machines, where there is no opportunity to win money or money’s worth. This includes content that indicates the opportunity to win “coins” of no monetary value.
Endangered and protected species (wildlife and plants)
We do not allow:

Content that:

  • Attempts to buy, sell, trade, donate, or gift or asks for endangered species or their parts or protected plants species.
  • Admits to or encourages the poaching, buying or trading of endangered species or their parts committed by the poster of the content either by themselves or their associates through others. This does not include depictions of poaching by strangers.
  • Depicts poaching of endangered species or their parts committed by the poster of the content by themselves or their associates.
  • Shows coordination or promotion (by which we mean speaks positively about, encourages the poaching of, or provides instructions) to use or make products from endangered species or their parts, or any endangered wildlife or plants.

Live non-endangered animals excluding livestock

  • Content that attempts to buy, sell or trade live non-endangered animals except when:
    • Posted by a Page, Group or Instagram profile representing legitimate brick-and-mortar entities, including retail businesses, legitimate websites, brands, or rehoming shelters, or a private individual sharing content on behalf of legitimate brick-and-mortar entities.
    • Posted in the context of donating or rehoming live non-endangered animals, including rehoming fees for peer-to-peer adoptions
    • Selling an animal for a religious offering, or offering a reward for lost pets.

Historic Artifacts
We do not allow:

Content that attempts to buy, sell, trade, donate or gift or asks for historical artifacts.

Hazardous Goods and Materials
We do not allow:

Content that attempts to buy, sell, trade, donate or gift or asks for hazardous goods and materials

Body Parts and Fluids
We do not allow:

Content that:

  • Attempts to buy, sell or trade human body parts, even beyond the human-trafficking content prohibited under the Human Exploitation policy.
  • Attempts to buy, sell or trade human fluids, except for a donation
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.

Data
Prevalence

Percentage of times people saw violating content

Content actioned

Number of pieces of violating content we took action on

Proactive rate

Percentage of violating content we found before people reported it

Appealed content

Number of pieces of content people appealed after we took action on it

Restored content

Number of pieces of content we restored after we originally took action on it

Prevalence

Percentage of times people saw violating content

Content actioned

Number of pieces of violating content we took action on

Proactive rate

Percentage of violating content we found before people reported it

Appealed content

Number of pieces of content people appealed after we took action on it

Restored content

Number of pieces of content we restored after we originally took action on it

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.

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 restricted goods and services

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