Violent and Graphic Content

Ads Must Comply with the Community Standards on Violent and Graphic Content

This policy provides additional protections beyond what is prohibited in the Community Standards’ Violent and Graphic Content policy. For example, content that has been deemed sensitive or disturbing is not eligible to run in ads. Further, advertisers can’t run ads that include imagery that is shocking, gruesome, or otherwise sensational in nature.

In addition to the requirements in our Community Standards where imagery is removed or receives a warning screen, Ads can’t include any of the following:

• Imagery of people

• Imagery depicting visible innards, such as exposed organs, bones, or muscle tissue on living or deceased persons.
• Imagery depicting needles piercing a person’s skin outside of a vaccination, acupuncture or dry-needling, tattooing, or piercing context.
• Imagery depicting firearms, bladed weapons, or explosives pointed directly at the viewer.
• Imagery depicting human waste and bodily fluids (e.g., feces, urine, vomit, earwax, mucus, byproduct of dermal extractions, or blood).
• Imagery depicting partially- or fully-uncovered deceased humans, even if there are no visible indicators of violent death.
• Imagery depicting vehicles that are burning or exploding, or depicting the moment or aftermath of speeding vehicles’ impact with other objects where the vehicle is dislodged from its path and / or the vehicle’s driver or passenger compartments are severely damaged.
• Imagery depicting deceased babies or fetuses outside of the womb, even if another person is present in the image.

• Imagery of animals

• Imagery depicting animals, living or dead, where visible blood is present, including in the context of animal-to-animal fights in the wild.
• Imagery depicting animals tied down, bound, cornered, or other imagery of injured animals suffering.
• Imagery depicting animals in a birthing context (e.g., there is blood or visible innards present).
• Imagery depicting living animals where insects are seen coming out them (e.g., maggots or worms).

• Fictional imagery
  • Imagery depicting fictional people, where the imagery looks like or closely resembles a photograph or video of a real person, in the following contexts:
    • Dismemberment;
    • Visible innards, such as exposed organs, bones, or muscle tissue;
    • Burning or charred persons;
    • Throat-slitting;
    • Medical and non-medical foreign objects (e.g., knives, nails, or other metal objects) piercing the skin;
    • Human waste or bodily fluids (e.g., feces, urine, vomit, earwax, mucus, or byproduct of dermal extractions), excluding blood;
    • Deceased babies or fetuses outside the womb;
    • Violent death or life threatening event; or
    • Firearms, bladed weapons, or explosives pointed directly at the viewer, unless the image is from a motion picture poster.
  • Imagery depicting fictional people, where the imagery depicts hand-drawn cartoons or other forms of clearly animated or computer-generated characters, in the following context:
    • Violent death or life threatening event, if the violent act is the focus of the imagery.

• Imagery depicting fictional, but photorealistic, animals in the following contexts:
  • Dismemberment;
  • Visible innards, such as exposed organs, bones, or muscle tissue;
  • Burning or charred animals;
  • Animals being boiled alive;
  • Blood is present;
  • Animals going from live to dead;
  • People committing acts of brutality (e.g., acts of violence or lethal threats on forcibly restrained subjects) on living animals;
  • Animals tied down, bound, cornered, or other imagery of injured animals suffering.

For tips on how to comply with this policy, visit the Business Help Center.