Policy details

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CHANGE LOG

Change log

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Policy Rationale

In line with our commitment to authenticity, we don't allow people to misrepresent themselves on our services, use fake accounts, artificially boost the popularity of content, or engage in behaviors designed to enable other violations under our Community Standards. Inauthentic Behavior refers to a variety of complex forms of deception, performed by a network of inauthentic assets controlled by the same individual or individuals, with the goal of deceiving Meta or our community or to evade enforcement under the Community Standards.

Where adversarial threat actors use fake accounts to engage in sophisticated Inauthentic tactics in order to influence public debate - they engage in what we’ve defined as Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior - or coordinated efforts to manipulate public debate for a strategic goal, in which fake accounts are central to the operation. This violating behavior receives a more severe and often bespoke response, in keeping with their more substantial and sophisticated efforts to deceive. Whenever possible, we share our findings about networks of Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior in our Quarterly Adversarial Threat Reports, found here. These reports are not meant to cover the entire universe of enforcements under the Inauthentic Behavior policy, but help inform our community’s understanding of the evolving nature of threats we face in this space.

While Inauthentic Behavior is often associated with civic or political content, and we are committed to preventing Inauthentic Behavior in the context of elections - these enforcement actions and standards apply agnostic of content, political or otherwise. This policy is intended to protect the authenticity of debate and discussion on our services, and create a space where people can trust the people and communities they interact with.

We do not allow:

  • The creation, use, or claimed use of Inauthentic Meta Assets (Accounts, Pages, Groups, etc.) in order to:
    • Deceive Meta or our users about:
    • The identity, purpose, or origin of an audience or the entity that they represent; or
    • the popularity of content or assets on our services; or
    • a Meta asset’s ownership or control network.
    • To Evade enforcement under the Community Standards.
    • Misuse Meta reporting systems to harass, intimidate or silence others.

  • Engaging in complex deception through the use of Meta Assets, including:
    • Inauthentic Distribution: Using a connected network of inauthentic Meta assets to increase the distribution of content, in order to mislead Meta or its users about the popularity of the content in question.
    • Inauthentic Audience Building: Using inauthentic Meta assets to increase the viewership or following of network assets, in order to mislead Meta or its users about the origin, ownership or purpose of an asset or assets.
    • Foreign Inauthentic Behavior: Foreign entities using Inauthentic Meta assets to falsely represent a domestic or local voice, in order to deceive an audience about the identity, purpose or origin of the entity they represent.
    • Inauthentic Engagement: Using a connected network of inauthentic Meta assets to deliver substantial quantities of fake engagement in ways designed to look authentic, in order to deceive Meta and its users about the popularity of content.
    • Substantially Similar Deceptions: Other substantially similar claimed or actual efforts by relatively sophisticated, connected networks of inauthentic Meta assets to deceive Meta or its users about the origin, popularity, or purpose of content.

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

We do not allow:

  • Entities to engage in, or claim to engage in Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior, defined as particularly sophisticated forms of Inauthentic Behavior where inauthentic accounts are central to the operation and operators:
    • Use adversarial methods to evade detection or appear authentic; and
    • Use a variety of adversarial and inauthentic techniques to achieve overarching strategic objectives; and
    • Primarily seek to manipulate public debate.
  • Entities to engage in, or claim to engage in Foreign Interference, defined as Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior where the network operators are not located in the same country as the audience the operation targets.
  • Entities to engage in, or claim to engage in Government Interference, defined as Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior where the operation is attributable to a government actor.
  • Governments that have instituted sustained blocks of social media to use their official departments, agencies, and embassies to deny the use of force or violent events in the context of an attack against the territorial integrity of another state in violation of Article 2(4) of the UN charter.
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

Content actioned decreased from 39.5 million pieces of content in Q1 2020 to 35.7 million in Q2 2020, as a result of temporary workforce changes due to COVID-19. Our proactive rate remained similar across both quarters.

Accounts actioned

Number of pieces of violating accounts we took action on

Proactive rate

Percentage of violating accounts we found before people reported it

Accounts actioned

Number of pieces of violating accounts we took action on

Proactive rate

Percentage of violating accounts we found before people reported 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 inauthentic behavior

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