غلط معلومات

پالیسی کی تفصیلات
صارف کے تجربات

پالیسی کی تفصیلات

تبدیلی کا لاگ
پالیسی کا استدلال
غلط معلومات ہماری کمیونٹی کے معیارات میں بیان کردہ کنٹنٹ کی دیگر اقسام سے مختلف ہے کیونکہ اس حوالے سے ممنوعہ کنٹنٹ کی جامع لسٹ پیش کرنے کا کوئی طریقہ موجود نہیں ہے۔ مثلاً، گرافک تشدد یا نفرت انگیز طرز عمل کے سلسلے میں، ہماری پالیسیوں میں وضاحت کی گئی ہے کہ کون سا کنٹنٹ ممنوع ہے اور ان پالیسیوں سے عدم اتفاق رکھنے والے لوگ بھی ان پر عمل کر سکتے ہیں۔ تاہم، غلط معلومات کے سلسلے میں، ہم اس طرح کی ہدایات فراہم نہیں کر سکتے۔ دنیا مسلسل بدل رہی ہے اور ضروری نہیں ہے کہ جو چیز ایک منٹ پہلے درست تھی وہ اگلے منٹ میں بھی درست رہے گی۔ لوگوں کے اطراف کی دنیا کے بارے میں ان کی معلومات بھی مختلف سطح کی ہوتی ہیں اور ہو سکتا ہے کہ وہ کسی چیز کو درست سمجھتے ہوں جبکہ حقیقت میں وہ درست نہ ہو۔ محض ”غلط معلومات“ سے منع کرنے والی پالیسی ہماری سروسز استعمال کرنے والے لوگوں کو مفید نوٹس فراہم نہیں کرے گی اور وہ ناقابل نفاذ ہوگی، کیونکہ ہمیں معلومات تک مکمل رسائی نہیں ہوتی ہے۔
اس کی بجائے، ہماری پالیسیوں میں غلط معلومات کو مختلف زمروں میں رکھا گیا ہے اور اس بارے میں واضح رہنمائی فراہم کرنے کی کوشش کی گئی ہے کہ اُس طرح کا مواد نظر آنے پر ہم اس کے ساتھ کیا معاملہ کرتے ہیں۔ ہر زمرے کیلئے، ہمارا نقطہ نظر اظہار رائے، تحفظ، وقار، اعتبار اور پرائیویسی کی ہماری اقدار میں توازن پیدا کرنے کی ہماری کوشش کی عکاسی کرتا ہے۔
ہم ایسی غلط معلومات کو ہٹا دیتے ہیں جس کے سبب جانی و مالی نقصان کے براہ راست خطرے کا امکان ہوتا ہے۔ ہم ایسا مواد بھی ہٹا دیتے ہیں جس کے سبب سیاسی پراسسز کے فنکشنز میں براہ راست مداخلت کا امکان ہوتا ہے۔ یہ تعین کرتے وقت کہ ان زمروں میں کون سی چیز غلط معلومات ہے، ہم ایسے آزاد ماہرین کے ساتھ پارٹنرشپ کرتے ہیں جو اہل علم اور ماہر ہوتے ہیں تاکہ وہ مواد کی سچائی کا اور اس بات کا جائزہ لے سکیں کہ آیا اس سے فوری نقصان کا براہ راست خطرہ ہو سکتا ہے یا نہیں۔ مثلاً، اس میں شہری فساد کے بارے میں افواہ کی سچائی کا تعین کرنے کیلئے اُس ملک میں موجود انسانی حقوق کی تنظیموں کے ساتھ پارٹنرشپ کرنا شامل ہے۔
دیگر تمام غلط معلومات کے سلسلے میں ہم اس کے پھیلاؤ کو کم کرنے یا ایسا ماحول بنانے پر توجہ مرکوز کرتے ہیں جس سے سودمند گفتگو کو فروغ ملے۔ ہمیں معلوم ہے کہ لوگ اکثر غلط معلومات کا بے ضرر طریقوں سے استعمال کرتے ہیں، جیسے کسی چیز کو بڑھا چڑھا کر پیش کرنے کیلئے (”کھیل کی تاریخ میں اس ٹیم کا ریکارڈ سب سے برا ہے!“) یا مزاح یا ہجو میں (”میرے شوہر نے اس سال کے بہترین شوہر ہونے کا خطاب جیت لیا ہے“۔) وہ غلط بیانیوں پر مشتمل کہانیوں کے ذریعے بھی اپنا تجربہ شیئر کر سکتے ہیں۔ کچھ معاملات میں، لوگ پختہ یقین کے ساتھ ایسی ذاتی آراء بھی شیئر کرتے ہیں جنہیں دوسرے لوگ غلط سمجھتے ہیں یا ایسی معلومات شیئر کرتے ہیں جنہیں وہ خود تو سچ سمجھتے ہیں لیکن دوسرے لوگ انہیں نامکمل یا گمراہ کن سمجھتے ہیں۔
اس بات کو تسلیم کرتے ہوئے کہ ایسا کنٹنٹ کتنا عام ہے، ہم اس وقت صارفین کو مددگار معلومات فراہم کرنے پر توجہ دیتے ہیں جب کوئی کنٹنٹ گمراہ کن یا الجھانے والا ہو سکتا ہے۔ اس کوشش کے حصے کے طور پر، امریکہ سے باہر، ہم اپنے پلیٹ فارمز پر سب سے وائرل کنٹنٹ کی درستگی کا جائزہ لینے اور اس کی درجہ بندی کرنے کیلئے دنیا بھر میں تھرڈ پارٹی فیکٹ چیکنگ آرگنائزیشنز کے ساتھ پارٹنرشپ کرتے ہیں (امریکہ میں ہمارے کام کرنے کے طریقے کے بارے میں مزید جاننے کیلئے یہاں اور یہاں دیکھیں)۔ ریاستہائے متحدہ امریکہ میں 'کمیونٹی نوٹ پروگرام' شروع ہو رہا ہے جس سے لوگوں کو Facebook، ‏Instagram اور Threads کی ممکنہ طور پر گمراہ کن یا مبہم پوسٹوں میں مزید سیاق و سباق شامل کرنے کی سہولت ملتی ہے (یہاں دیکھیں)۔ ہم میڈیا اور ڈیجیٹل خواندگی میں اضافہ کرنے کیلئے وسائل بھی فراہم کرتے ہیں تاکہ لوگ خود یہ فیصلہ کر سکیں کہ کیا پڑھنا ہے، کس پر بھروسہ کرنا ہے اور کیا شیئر کرنا ہے۔ ہم لوگوں سے یہ تقاضا کرتے ہیں کہ جب بھی وہ ایسا آرگینک کنٹنٹ پوسٹ کریں جس میں حقیقی نظر آنے والی ویڈیو یا حقیقی آواز معلوم ہونے والی آڈیو شامل ہو جسے ڈیجیٹل طور پر بنایا گیا یا اس میں ڈیجیٹل طور پر ردّ و بدل کیا گیا ہو، تو AI سے تعاون یافتہ ہمارے انکشاف کے ٹول کے ذریعے اس بات کو ظاہر کریں اور اگر وہ ایسا کرنے میں ناکام ہوتے ہیں تو ہم سزا دے سکتے ہیں۔ ڈیجیٹل طور پر بنایا گیا یا ردّوبدل کیا گیا ایسا مخصوص کنٹنٹ جس سے عوامی اہمیت کے معاملے میں لوگوں کو گمراہ کرنے کا خاصا زیادہ خطرہ پیدا ہوتا ہو، ہم اس پر لیبل بھی لگا سکتے ہیں۔
آخر میں، ہم دیگر شعبوں کے ایسے مواد اور برتاؤ سے بھی منع کرتے ہیں جو اکثر غلط معلومات کے پھیلاؤ سے وابستہ ہوتے ہیں۔ مثلاً، ہمارے کمیونٹی کے معیارات جعلی اکاؤنٹس، فراڈ، اور منظم غیر اخلاقی طرز عمل سے روکتے ہیں۔
چونکہ آن لائن اور آف لائن ماحولوں میں تبدیلی اور ترقی ہوتی رہتی ہے، لہذا ہم ان پالیسیوں کو بتدریج بہتر بنانا جاری رکھیں گے۔ وہ اکاؤنٹس جو مندرجہ ذیل غلط معلومات کو بار بار شیئر کرتے ہیں، ان کے مواد پر اس پالیسی کا نفاذ کرنے کے علاوہ، دیگر کارروائیاں بھی کی جا سکتی ہیں جیسے ان کے مواد کی تقسیم میں کمی، ایڈورٹائز کرنے کی اہلیت محدود کرنا یا انہیں ہمارے پلیٹ فارمز سے ہٹانا۔ جب Meta کنٹنٹ کو ہٹا دیتی ہے تب کیا ہوتا ہے اس بارے میں اضافی معلومات یہاں مل سکتی ہیں۔
گائیڈ لائنز
وہ غلط معلومات جسے ہم ہٹا دیتے ہیں:
ہم مندرجہ ذیل اقسام کی غلط معلومات کو ہٹا دیتے ہیں:
I. جانی و مالی نقصان یا تشدد
ہم ایسی غلط معلومات یا ناقابل تصدیق افواہوں کو ہٹا دیتے ہیں جن کے بارے میں پارٹنرز نے تعین کیا ہو کہ ان سے لوگوں کو ناگزیر تشدد یا جانی و مالی نقصان کا براہ راست خطرہ ہو سکتا ہے۔ ہم غلط معلومات کی تعریف ایسے دعویٰ والے مواد کے بطور کرتے ہیں جس کا تعین کسی مستند فریق ثالث کے ذریعے غلط کے طور پر کیا جاتا ہے۔ ہم ناقابل تصدیق افواہ کی تعریف ایسے دعویٰ کے بطور کرتے ہیں جس کے ماخذ کے بارے میں ماہر پارٹنرز کنفرم کرتے ہیں کہ اس کا سراغ لگانا انتہائی مشکل یا ناممکن ہے، جس کے مستند ذرائع غیر موجود ہوتے ہیں، جہاں اس دعویٰ کی قلعی کھولنے والی کافی وضاحت نہیں ہوتی ہے، یا جہاں دعویٰ بہت ہی ناقابل یقین یا بہت ہی غیر منطقی ہوتا ہے۔
ہمیں معلوم ہے کہ بعض اوقات ایسی غلط معلومات جو بے ضرر لگ سکتی ہیں، مخصوص سیاق و سباق میں، ان سے آف لائن نقصان کا خطرہ ہو سکتا ہے، اس میں تشدد کی ایسی دھمکیاں بھی شامل ہیں جن سے موت، شدید چوٹ، یا دیگر جانی و مالی نقصان کا زیادہ خطرہ ہو سکتا ہے۔ ہم ایسی غیر سرکاری تنظیموں (NGOs)، غیر منافع بخش تنظیموں، فلاحی تنظیموں اور بین الاقوامی تنظیموں کے عالمی نیٹ ورک کے ساتھ کام کرتے ہیں جنہیں ان مقامی سرگرمیوں اور تبدیلیوں کے حوالے سے مہارت حاصل ہے۔
جن ممالک میں سماجی تشدد کا بہت زیادہ خطرہ ہے، وہاں ہم مقامی پارٹنرز کی مدد سے مستعدی کے ساتھ یہ سمجھنے کی کوشش کرتے ہیں کہ کون سے جھوٹے دعووں کی وجہ سے ممکنہ طور پر جانی و مالی نقصان کا خطرہ لاحق ہو سکتا ہے۔ اس کے بعد ہمارے پلیٹ فارم پر اس طرح کے دعوے کرنے والے مواد کو ہم تلاش کر کے ہٹا دیتے ہیں۔ مثال کے طور پر ہو سکتا ہے مقامی ماہرین کے ساتھ مشاورت کر کے ہم ناقابل اطلاق میڈیا کو ہٹا دیں جس میں جھوٹے دعووں پر مبنی تشدد کی کارروائیاں، تشدد کے متاثرین یا مرتکب، ہتھیار، یا فوجی ساز و سامان دکھائے جاتے ہیں۔
II. صحت سے متعلق نقصان دہ غلط معلومات
ہم صحت سے متعلق ایسی غلط معلومات کی شناخت کرنے کیلئے صحت کی نمایاں تنظیموں کے ساتھ مشاورت کرتے ہیں جو ممکنہ طور پر عوامی صحت و تحفظ کو ناگزیر نقصان پہنچا سکتی ہیں۔ ہم صحت سے متعلق جن غلط معلومات کو ہٹا دیتے ہیں ان میں مندرجہ ذیل چیزیں شامل ہیں:
  • ویکسینز کے بارے میں غلط معلومات۔ جب صحت عامہ کے حکام یہ نتیجہ اخذ کرتے ہیں کہ معلومات غلط ہے اور اس سے براہ راست طور پر ویکسین کو مسترد کر دینے کا خطرہ لاحق ہو سکتا ہے تو ہم بنیادی طور پر غلط معلومات کو ہٹا دیتے ہیں۔ ان میں درج ذیل باتیں شامل ہیں:
    • ویکسین آٹزم کا سبب بنتی ہے (مثلاً: "زیادہ ویکسینیشن کی وجہ سے ہی ان دنوں بہت سارے بچے آٹزم کے شکار ہو گئے ہیں۔")
    • ویکسین کے سبب نوزائدہ بچوں کی موت (سڈن انفینٹ ڈیتھ سنڈروم) ہو جاتی ہے (مثلاً: "کیا آپ کو معلوم نہیں ہے کہ ویکسین SIDS کا سبب بنتی ہے؟"
    • ویکسین لگوانے سے وہی بیماری ہوتی ہے جس سے تحفظ کیلئے اسے بنایا گیا ہے، یا ویکسین لگوانے والے شخص کو بیماری لاحق ہونے کا امکان زیادہ ہو جاتا ہے (مثلاً: "ویکسین لینے سے آپ کو بیماری لاحق ہونے کا امکان زیادہ ہو جاتا ہے کیونکہ اس کے اندر بیماری کا جرثومہ پہلے سے موجود ہوتا ہے۔ ہوشیار ہو جائیں!")
    • ویکسین یا اس کے اجزاء مہلک، ٹاکسک، زہریلے، نقصان دہ یا خطرناک ہیں (مثلاً: "اگر آپ کو اپنے جسم میں زہر ڈالنے میں کوئی مضائقہ نہیں ہے تو بے شک آپ ویکسین لے سکتے ہیں۔")
    • قدرتی قوت مدافعت ویکسین سے حاصل شدہ قوت مدافعت کے مقابلے زیادہ محفوظ ہے (مثلاً: "ویکسین لینے کی بجائے بیماری سے متاثر ہو جانا سب سے محفوظ ہے۔")
    • قلیل مدت میں کئی ویکسینز لگوانا خطرناک ہے، چاہے اس کے وقت کی تجویز طبی طور پر کی گئی ہو (مثلاً: "ایک ہی وقت میں ایک سے زیادہ ویکسین نہ لیں، یہ خطرناک ہے - مجھے اس کی پرواہ نہیں ہے کہ آپ کا ڈاکٹر آپ کو کیا کہتا ہے!")
    • ویکسینز اس بیماری کو روکنے کیلئے کارآمد نہیں ہیں جس سے حفاظت کی خاطر انہیں بنایا گیا ہے۔ تاہم، COVID-19، فلو اور ملیریا کی ویکسینز کیلئے، ہم یہ دعوے نہیں ہٹاتے ہیں کہ وہ ویکسینز کسی شخص کو ان وائرسز سے بچانے میں مؤثر نہیں ہیں۔ (مثلاً: ہٹاتے ہیں – "پولیو ویکسین آپ کو بیماری سے بچانے میں کوئی کردار ادا نہیں کرتی ہے"؛ ہٹاتے ہیں – "در اصل ویکسینز آپ کو بیماریوں سے بچانے میں کوئی کردار ادا نہیں کرتی ہیں"؛ اجازت دیتے ہیں – "ویکسین آپ کو COVID-19 ہونے سے نہیں بچاتی ہے، اسی وجہ سے آپ کو اس کے بعد بھی دوسروں کے آس پاس رہنے پر سماجی دوری بنانے اور ماسک پہننے کی ضرورت پڑتی ہے۔")
    • خسرہ کے ہونے سے موت واقع نہیں ہو سکتی (اضافی معلومات اور/یا سیاق و سباق کی ضرورت ہے) (مثلاً: "اگر آپ کو خسرہ ہو جاتا ہے تو پریشان نہ ہوں، یہ جان لیوا نہیں ہو سکتا۔")
    • وٹامن C ان بیماریوں کی روک تھام میں ویکسین کی طرح مؤثر ہے جن کیلئے ویکسینز موجود ہیں۔
  • صحت عامہ کے ہنگامی حالات کے دوران صحت سے متعلق غلط معلومات۔ جب صحت عامہ کے حکام یہ نتیجہ اخذ کرتے ہیں کہ معلومات غلط ہے اور اس سے براہ راست طور پر ناگزیر جانی و مالی نقصان کا خطرہ لاحق ہو سکتا ہے، اس میں لوگوں کو نقصان دہ بیماری ہونے یا پھیلانے کا خطرہ یا کسی وابستہ ویکسین کو مسترد کرنے کا خطرہ بھی شامل ہے، تو ہم صحت عامہ کے ہنگامی حالات کے دوران غلط معلومات کو ہٹا دیتے ہیں۔ ہم صحت کے عالمی اور مقامی اداروں کے ساتھ مل کر صحت عامہ کے ہنگامی حالات کی شناخت کرتے ہیں۔
  • صحت کے مسائل کیلئے نقصان دہ معجزاتی علاجوں کو پروموٹ کرنا یا ان کی حمایت کرنا۔ ان میں ایسے علاج شامل ہیں جن میں، صحت کے معاملے میں کسی چیز کے استعمال کی تجویز پر عمل کرنے کی صورت میں براہ راست شدید چوٹ یا موت کے خطرے کا امکان ہو اور صحت کے معاملے میں اس علاج کا کوئی درست استعمال ثابت نہ ہو (مثلاً: بلیچ، جراثیم کش، سیاہ مرہم، کاسٹک سوڈا)۔
III. ووٹر یا مردم شماری میں مداخلت
الیکشن اور مردم شماری کی سالمیت کو پروموٹ کرنے کی کوشش کے تحت، ہم ایسی غلط معلومات کو ہٹا دیتے ہیں جس سے ان کارروائیوں میں لوگوں کی شرکت کی اہلیت میں براہ راست مداخلت کا خطرہ لاحق ہو سکتا ہے۔ اس میں مندرجہ ذیل شامل ہیں:
  • ووٹنگ، ووٹر رجسٹریشن یا مردم شماری میں شرکت کی تاریخوں، لوکیشنز، وقت اور طریقوں کے بارے میں غلط معلومات۔
  • اس بارے میں غلط معلومات کہ کون ووٹ دے سکتا ہے، ووٹنگ کرنے کی اہلیتیں، ووٹ گنا جائے گا یا نہیں، اور کون سی معلومات یا مواد ووٹ دینے کیلئے فراہم کیا جانا لازمی ہے۔
  • اس بارے میں غلط معلومات کہ آیا کوئی امیدوار الیکشن میں حصہ لے رہا ہے یا نہیں۔
  • اس بارے میں غلط معلومات کہ مردم شماری میں کون شرکت کر سکتا ہے اور شرکت کرنے کیلئے کون سی معلومات یا مواد فراہم کیا جانا لازمی ہے۔
  • مردم شماری میں حکومتی شمولیت کے بارے میں غلط معلومات، بشمول جہاں قابل اطلاق ہو، کہ کسی فرد کی مردم شماری کی معلومات کسی اور (غیر مردم شماری) گورنمنٹ ایجنسی کے ساتھ شیئر کی جائیں گی۔
  • جھوٹے اور غیر تصدیق شدہ دعوے کہ یو ایس امیگریشن اینڈ کسٹمز انفورسمنٹ (ICE) ووٹنگ لوکیشن پر ہے۔
  • واضح غلط دعوے کہ اگر لوگ ووٹنگ میں حصہ لیں گے تو COVID-19 (یا دیگر متعدی مرض) میں مبتلا ہو جائیں گے۔
  • امریکہ میں ووٹنگ کی لوکیشن پر موجودہ صورتحال کے بارے میں جھوٹے دعوے جن کی وجہ سے ووٹ دینا ناممکن ہو جائے، جیسا کہ الیکشن اتھارٹی کی طرف سے اس کی تصدیق کی گئی ہے۔
ہماری کچھ اضافی پالیسیاں ہیں جنہیں تشدد کے مطالبات، غیر قانونی شرکت کے پروموشن، الیکشنز میں منظم مداخلت کے مطالبات والے کنٹنٹ کی روک تھام کے مقصد کیلئے مرتب کیا گیا ہے، انہیں ہماری کمیونٹی کے معیارات کے دیگر سیکشنز میں بیان کیا گیا ہے۔
درج ذیل کنٹنٹ کیلئے، ہم معلومات پر مبنی لیبل شامل کرتے ہیں:
ترمیم شدہ میڈیا
میڈیا میں مختلف طریقوں سے ترمیم کی جا سکتی ہے۔ بہت سے کیسز میں، یہ تبدیلیاں معمولی ہوتی ہیں، جیسے فنی اسباب کی بنا پر مواد کو تراشنا یا مختصر کرنا یا موسیقی شامل کرنا۔ دیگر کیسز میں، ترمیم ظاہر نہیں ہوتی ہے اور گمراہ کن ثابت ہو سکتی ہے۔
  • ڈیجیٹل طور پر بنایا گیا یا ردّوبدل شدہ مواد جو گمراہ کن ہو سکتا ہے۔ ایسا کنٹنٹ جو بصورت دیگر کمیونٹی کے معیارات کی خلاف ورزی نہیں کرتا ہے، ہم اس کنٹنٹ پر انتباہی لیبل لگا سکتے ہیں – یا بطور اشتہار جمع کردہ کنٹنٹ کو مسترد کر سکتے ہیں – اگر کنٹنٹ میں حقیقی نظر آنے والی کوئی تصویر یا ویڈیو یا حقیقی آواز معلوم ہونے والی آڈیو شامل ہو جسے ڈیجیٹل طور پر بنایا گیا یا اس میں رد و بدل کیا گیا ہو اور عوامی اہمیت کے معاملے میں عوام کو مادی طور پر گمراہ کرنے کا خاصا زیادہ خطرہ پیدا کرتا ہو۔
Policy Rationale
Misinformation is different from other types of speech addressed in our Community Standards because there is no way to articulate a comprehensive list of what is prohibited. With graphic violence or hateful conductspeech, for instance, our policies specify the contentspeech we prohibit, and even persons who disagree with those policies can follow them. With misinformation, however, we cannot provide such a line. The world is changing constantly, and what is true one minute may not be true the next minute. People also have different levels of information about the world around them, and may believe something is true when it is not. A policy that simply prohibits “misinformation” would not provide useful notice to the people who use our services and would be unenforceable, as we don’t have perfect access to information.
Instead, our policies articulate different categories of misinformation and try to provide clear guidance about how we treat that speech when we see it. For each category, our approach reflects our attempt to balance our values of expression, safety, dignity, authenticity, and privacy.
We remove misinformation where it is likely to directly contribute to the risk of imminent physical harm. We also remove content that is likely to directly contribute to interference with the functioning of political processes. In determining what constitutes misinformation in these categories, we partner with independent experts who possess knowledge and expertise to assess the truth of the content and whether it is likely to directly contribute to the risk of imminent harm. This includes, for instance, partnering with human rights organizations with a presence on the ground in a country to determine the truth of a rumor about civil conflict.
For all other misinformation, we focus on reducing its prevalence or creating an environment that fosters a productive dialogue. We know that people often use misinformation in harmless ways, such as to exaggerate a point (“This team has the worst record in the history of the sport!”) or in humor or satire (“My husband just won Husband of the Year.”) They also may share their experience through stories that contain inaccuracies. In some cases, people share deeply-held personal opinions that others consider false or share information that they believe to be true but others consider incomplete or misleading.
Recognizing how common such speech is, we focus on providingslowing the spread of hoaxes and viral misinformation, and directing users with helpfulto authoritative information when there is potentially misleading or confusing content. As part of that effort, outside of the United States we partner with third-party fact checking organizations in many parts of the world to review and rate the accuracy of the most viral content on our platforms (see here and here for our approach in the United States). Beginning in the United States, the Community Notes program lets people add more context to Facebook, Instagram and Threads posts that are potentially misleading or confusing (see here). We also provide resources to increase media and digital literacy so people can decide what to read, trust, and share themselves. We require people to disclose, using our AI-disclosure tool, whenever they post organic content with photorealistic video or realistic-sounding audio that was digitally created or altered, and we may apply penalties if they fail to do so. We may also add a label to certain digitally created or altered content that creates a particularly high risk of misleading people on a matter of public importance.
Finally, we prohibit content and behavior in other areas that often overlap with the spread of misinformation. For example, our Community Standards prohibit fake accounts, fraud, and coordinated inauthentic behavior.
As online and offline environments change and evolve, we will continue to evolve these policies. Accounts that repeatedly share the misinformation listed below may, in addition to having their content enforced on in accordance with this policy, receive decreased distribution, limitations on their ability to advertise, or be removed from our platforms. Additional information on what happens when Meta removes content can be found here.
Guidelines
Misinformation we remove:
We remove the following types of misinformation:
I. Physical Harm or Violence
We remove misinformation or unverifiable rumors that expert partners have determined are likely to directly contribute to a risk of imminent violence or physical harm to people. We define misinformation as content with a claim that is determined to be false by an authoritative third party. We define an unverifiable rumor as a claim whose source expert partners confirm is extremely hard or impossible to trace, for which authoritative sources are absent, where there is not enough specificity for the claim to be debunked, or where the claim is too incredulous or too irrational to be believed.
We know that sometimes misinformation that might appear benign could, in a specific context, contribute to a risk of offline harm, including threats of violence that could contribute to a heightened risk of death, serious injury, or other physical harm. We work with a global network of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), not-for-profit organizations, humanitarian organizations, and international organizations that have expertise in these local dynamics.
In countries experiencing a heightened risk of societal violence, we work proactively with local partners to understand which false claims may directly contribute to a risk of imminent physical harm. We then work to identify and remove content making those claims on our platform. For example, in consultation with local experts, we may remove out-of-context media falsely claiming to depict acts of violence, victims or perpetrators of violence, weapons, or military hardware.
II. Harmful Health Misinformation
We consult with leading health organizations to identify health misinformation likely to directly contribute to imminent harm to public health and safety. The harmful health misinformation that we remove includes the following:
  • Misinformation about vaccines. We remove misinformation primarily about vaccines when public health authorities conclude that the information is false and likely to directly contribute to imminent vaccine refusals. They include:
    • Vaccines cause autism (Ex: “Increased vaccinations are why so many kids have autism these days.”)
    • Vaccines cause Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (Ex: “Don’t you know vaccines cause SIDS?”
    • Vaccines cause the disease against which they are meant to protect, or cause the person receiving the vaccine to be more likely to get the disease (Ex: “Taking a vaccine actually makes you more likely to get the disease since there’s a strain of the disease inside. Beware!”)
    • Vaccines or their ingredients are deadly, toxic, poisonous, harmful, or dangerous (Ex: “Sure, you can take vaccines, if you don’t mind putting poison in your body.”)
    • Natural immunity is safer than vaccine-acquired immunity (Ex: “It’s safest to just get the disease rather than the vaccine.”)
    • It is dangerous to get several vaccines in a short period of time, even if that timing is medically recommended (Ex: “Never take more than one vaccine at the same time, that is dangerous - I don’t care what your doctor tells you!”)
    • Vaccines are not effective at preventing the disease against which they purport to protect. However, for the COVID-19, flu, and malaria vaccines, we do not remove claims that those vaccines are not effective in preventing someone from contracting those viruses. (Ex’s: Remove – “The polio vaccine doesn’t do anything to stop you from getting the disease”; Remove – “Vaccines actually don’t do anything to stop you from getting diseases”; Allow – “The vaccine doesn’t stop you from getting COVID-19, that’s why you still need to socially distance and wear a mask when you’re around others.”)
    • Acquiring measles cannot cause death (requires additional information and/or context) (Ex: “Don’t worry about whether you get measles, it can’t be fatal.”)
    • Vitamin C is as effective as vaccines in preventing diseases for which vaccines exist.
  • Misinformation about health during public health emergencies. We remove misinformation during public health emergencies when public health authorities conclude that the information is false and likely to directly contribute to the risk of imminent physical harm, including by contributing to the risk of individuals getting or spreading a harmful disease or refusing an associated vaccine. We identify public health emergencies in partnership with global and local health authorities.
  • Promoting or advocating for harmful miracle cures for health issues. These include treatments where the recommended application, in a health context, is likely to directly contribute to the risk of serious injury or death, and the treatment has no legitimate health use (ex: bleach, disinfectant, black salve, caustic soda).
III. Voter or Census Interference
In an effort to promote election and census integrity, we remove misinformation that is likely to directly contribute to a risk of interference with people’s ability to participate in those processes. This includes the following:
  • Misinformation about the dates, locations, times, and methods for voting, voter registration, or census participation.
  • Misinformation about who can vote, qualifications for voting, whether a vote will be counted, and what information or materials must be provided in order to vote.
  • Misinformation about whether a candidate is running or not.
  • Misinformation about who can participate in the census and what information or materials must be provided in order to participate.
  • Misinformation about government involvement in the census, including, where applicable, that an individual's census information will be shared with another (non-census) government agency.
  • False or unverified claims that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is at a voting location.
  • Explicit false claims that people will be infected by COVID-19 (or another communicable disease) if they participate in the voting process.
  • False claims about current conditions at a U.S. voting location that would make it impossible to vote, as verified by an election authority.
We have additional policies intended to cover calls for violence, the promotion of illegal participation, and calls for coordinated interference in elections, which are represented in other sections of our Community Standards.
For the following content, we include an informative label:
Manipulated Media
Media can be edited in a variety of ways. In many cases, these changes are benign, such as content being cropped or shortened for artistic reasons or music being added. In other cases, the manipulation is not apparent and could mislead.
  • Content Digitally Created or Altered that May Mislead. For content that does not otherwise violate the Community Standards, we may place an informative label on the face of content – or reject content submitted as an advertisement – when the content is a photorealistic image or video, or realistic sounding audio, that was digitally created or altered and creates a particularly high risk of materially deceiving the public on a matter of public importance.
Policy Rationale
Misinformation is different from other types of speech addressed in our Community Standards because there is no way to articulate a comprehensive list of what is prohibited. With graphic violence or hate speech, for instance, our policies specify the speech we prohibit, and even persons who disagree with those policies can follow them. With misinformation, however, we cannot provide such a line. The world is changing constantly, and what is true one minute may not be true the next minute. People also have different levels of information about the world around them, and may believe something is true when it is not. A policy that simply prohibits “misinformation” would not provide useful notice to the people who use our services and would be unenforceable, as we don’t have perfect access to information.
Instead, our policies articulate different categories of misinformation and try to provide clear guidance about how we treat that speech when we see it. For each category, our approach reflects our attempt to balance our values of expression, safety, dignity, authenticity, and privacy.
We remove misinformation where it is likely to directly contribute to the risk of imminent physical harm. We also remove content that is likely to directly contribute to interference with the functioning of political processes. In determining what constitutes misinformation in these categories, we partner with independent experts who possess knowledge and expertise to assess the truth of the content and whether it is likely to directly contribute to the risk of imminent harm. This includes, for instance, partnering with human rights organizations with a presence on the ground in a country to determine the truth of a rumor about civil conflict.
For all other misinformation, we focus on reducing its prevalence or creating an environment that fosters a productive dialogue. We know that people often use misinformation in harmless ways, such as to exaggerate a point (“This team has the worst record in the history of the sport!”) or in humor or satire (“My husband just won Husband of the Year.”) They also may share their experience through stories that contain inaccuracies. In some cases, people share deeply-held personal opinions that others consider false or share information that they believe to be true but others consider incomplete or misleading.
Recognizing how common such speech is, we focus on slowing the spread of hoaxes and viral misinformation, and directing users to authoritative information. As part of that effort, outside of the United States we partner with third-party fact checking organizations in many parts of the world to review and rate the accuracy of the most viral content on our platforms (see here and here for our approach in the United States). Beginning in the United States, the Community Notes program lets people add more context to Facebook, Instagram and Threads posts that are potentially misleading or confusing (see here). We also provide resources to increase media and digital literacy so people can decide what to read, trust, and share themselves. We require people to disclose, using our AI-disclosure tool, whenever they post organic content with photorealistic video or realistic-sounding audio that was digitally created or altered, and we may apply penalties if they fail to do so. We may also add a label to certain digitally created or altered content that creates a particularly high risk of misleading people on a matter of public importance.
Finally, we prohibit content and behavior in other areas that often overlap with the spread of misinformation. For example, our Community Standards prohibit fake accounts, fraud, and coordinated inauthentic behavior.
As online and offline environments change and evolve, we will continue to evolve these policies. Accounts that repeatedly share the misinformation listed below may, in addition to having their content enforced on in accordance with this policy, receive decreased distribution, limitations on their ability to advertise, or be removed from our platforms. Additional information on what happens when Meta removes content can be found here.
Guidelines
Misinformation we remove:
We remove the following types of misinformation:
I. Physical Harm or Violence
We remove misinformation or unverifiable rumors that expert partners have determined are likely to directly contribute to a risk of imminent violence or physical harm to people. We define misinformation as content with a claim that is determined to be false by an authoritative third party. We define an unverifiable rumor as a claim whose source expert partners confirm is extremely hard or impossible to trace, for which authoritative sources are absent, where there is not enough specificity for the claim to be debunked, or where the claim is too incredulous or too irrational to be believed.
We know that sometimes misinformation that might appear benign could, in a specific context, contribute to a risk of offline harm, including threats of violence that could contribute to a heightened risk of death, serious injury, or other physical harm. We work with a global network of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), not-for-profit organizations, humanitarian organizations, and international organizations that have expertise in these local dynamics.
In countries experiencing a heightened risk of societal violence, we work proactively with local partners to understand which false claims may directly contribute to a risk of imminent physical harm. We then work to identify and remove content making those claims on our platform. For example, in consultation with local experts, we may remove out-of-context media falsely claiming to depict acts of violence, victims or perpetrators of violence, weapons, or military hardware.
II. Harmful Health Misinformation
We consult with leading health organizations to identify health misinformation likely to directly contribute to imminent harm to public health and safety. The harmful health misinformation that we remove includes the following:
  • Misinformation about vaccines. We remove misinformation primarily about vaccines when public health authorities conclude that the information is false and likely to directly contribute to imminent vaccine refusals. They include:
    • Vaccines cause autism (Ex: “Increased vaccinations are why so many kids have autism these days.”)
    • Vaccines cause Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (Ex: “Don’t you know vaccines cause SIDS?”
    • Vaccines cause the disease against which they are meant to protect, or cause the person receiving the vaccine to be more likely to get the disease (Ex: “Taking a vaccine actually makes you more likely to get the disease since there’s a strain of the disease inside. Beware!”)
    • Vaccines or their ingredients are deadly, toxic, poisonous, harmful, or dangerous (Ex: “Sure, you can take vaccines, if you don’t mind putting poison in your body.”)
    • Natural immunity is safer than vaccine-acquired immunity (Ex: “It’s safest to just get the disease rather than the vaccine.”)
    • It is dangerous to get several vaccines in a short period of time, even if that timing is medically recommended (Ex: “Never take more than one vaccine at the same time, that is dangerous - I don’t care what your doctor tells you!”)
    • Vaccines are not effective at preventing the disease against which they purport to protect. However, for the COVID-19, flu, and malaria vaccines, we do not remove claims that those vaccines are not effective in preventing someone from contracting those viruses. (Ex’s: Remove – “The polio vaccine doesn’t do anything to stop you from getting the disease”; Remove – “Vaccines actually don’t do anything to stop you from getting diseases”; Allow – “The vaccine doesn’t stop you from getting COVID-19, that’s why you still need to socially distance and wear a mask when you’re around others.”)
    • Acquiring measles cannot cause death (requires additional information and/or context) (Ex: “Don’t worry about whether you get measles, it can’t be fatal.”)
    • Vitamin C is as effective as vaccines in preventing diseases for which vaccines exist.
  • Misinformation about health during public health emergencies. We remove misinformation during public health emergencies when public health authorities conclude that the information is false and likely to directly contribute to the risk of imminent physical harm, including by contributing to the risk of individuals getting or spreading a harmful disease or refusing an associated vaccine. We identify public health emergencies in partnership with global and local health authorities.
  • Promoting or advocating for harmful miracle cures for health issues. These include treatments where the recommended application, in a health context, is likely to directly contribute to the risk of serious injury or death, and the treatment has no legitimate health use (ex: bleach, disinfectant, black salve, caustic soda).
III. Voter or Census Interference
In an effort to promote election and census integrity, we remove misinformation that is likely to directly contribute to a risk of interference with people’s ability to participate in those processes. This includes the following:
  • Misinformation about the dates, locations, times, and methods for voting, voter registration, or census participation.
  • Misinformation about who can vote, qualifications for voting, whether a vote will be counted, and what information or materials must be provided in order to vote.
  • Misinformation about whether a candidate is running or not.
  • Misinformation about who can participate in the census and what information or materials must be provided in order to participate.
  • Misinformation about government involvement in the census, including, where applicable, that an individual's census information will be shared with another (non-census) government agency.
  • False or unverified claims that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is at a voting location.
  • Explicit false claims that people will be infected by COVID-19 (or another communicable disease) if they participate in the voting process.
  • False claims about current conditions at a U.S. voting location that would make it impossible to vote, as verified by an election authority.
We have additional policies intended to cover calls for violence, the promotion of illegal participation, and calls for coordinated interference in elections, which are represented in other sections of our Community Standards.
For the following content, we include an informative label:
Manipulated Media
Media can be edited in a variety of ways. In many cases, these changes are benign, such as content being cropped or shortened for artistic reasons or music being added. In other cases, the manipulation is not apparent and could mislead.
  • Content Digitally Created or Altered that May Mislead. For content that does not otherwise violate the Community Standards, we may place an informative label on the face of content – or reject content submitted as an advertisement – when the content is a photorealistic image or video, or realistic sounding audio, that was digitally created or altered and creates a particularly high risk of materially deceiving the public on a matter of public importance.
Policy Rationale
Misinformation is different from other types of speech addressed in our Community Standards because there is no way to articulate a comprehensive list of what is prohibited. With graphic violence or hate speech, for instance, our policies specify the speech we prohibit, and even persons who disagree with those policies can follow them. With misinformation, however, we cannot provide such a line. The world is changing constantly, and what is true one minute may not be true the next minute. People also have different levels of information about the world around them, and may believe something is true when it is not. A policy that simply prohibits “misinformation” would not provide useful notice to the people who use our services and would be unenforceable, as we don’t have perfect access to information.
Instead, our policies articulate different categories of misinformation and try to provide clear guidance about how we treat that speech when we see it. For each category, our approach reflects our attempt to balance our values of expression, safety, dignity, authenticity, and privacy.
We remove misinformation where it is likely to directly contribute to the risk of imminent physical harm. We also remove content that is likely to directly contribute to interference with the functioning of political processes. In determining what constitutes misinformation in these categories, we partner with independent experts who possess knowledge and expertise to assess the truth of the content and whether it is likely to directly contribute to the risk of imminent harm. This includes, for instance, partnering with human rights organizations with a presence on the ground in a country to determine the truth of a rumor about civil conflict.
For all other misinformation, we focus on reducing its prevalence or creating an environment that fosters a productive dialogue. We know that people often use misinformation in harmless ways, such as to exaggerate a point (“This team has the worst record in the history of the sport!”) or in humor or satire (“My husband just won Husband of the Year.”) They also may share their experience through stories that contain inaccuracies. In some cases, people share deeply-held personal opinions that others consider false or share information that they believe to be true but others consider incomplete or misleading.
Recognizing how common such speech is, we focus on slowing the spread of hoaxes and viral misinformation, and directing users to authoritative information. As part of that effort, we partner with third-party fact checking organizations in many parts of the world to review and rate the accuracy of the most viral content on our platforms (see hereto learn more about how our fact-checking program works)and here for our approach in the United States). We also provide resources to increase media and digital literacy so people can decide what to read, trust, and share themselves. We require people to disclose, using our AI-disclosure tool, whenever they post organic content with photorealistic video or realistic-sounding audio that was digitally created or altered, and we may apply penalties if they fail to do so. We may also add a label to certain digitally created or altered content that creates a particularly high risk of misleading people on a matter of public importance.
Finally, we prohibit content and behavior in other areas that often overlap with the spread of misinformation. For example, our Community Standards prohibit fake accounts, fraud, and coordinated inauthentic behavior.
As online and offline environments change and evolve, we will continue to evolve these policies. Accounts that repeatedly share the misinformation listed below may, in addition to having their content enforced on in accordance with this policy, receive decreased distribution, limitations on their ability to advertise, or be removed from our platforms. Additional information on what happens when Meta removes content can be found here.
Guidelines
Misinformation we remove:
We remove the following types of misinformation:
I. Physical Harm or Violence
We remove misinformation or unverifiable rumors that expert partners have determined are likely to directly contribute to a risk of imminent violence or physical harm to people. We define misinformation as content with a claim that is determined to be false by an authoritative third party. We define an unverifiable rumor as a claim whose source expert partners confirm is extremely hard or impossible to trace, for which authoritative sources are absent, where there is not enough specificity for the claim to be debunked, or where the claim is too incredulous or too irrational to be believed.
We know that sometimes misinformation that might appear benign could, in a specific context, contribute to a risk of offline harm, including threats of violence that could contribute to a heightened risk of death, serious injury, or other physical harm. We work with a global network of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), not-for-profit organizations, humanitarian organizations, and international organizations that have expertise in these local dynamics.
In countries experiencing a heightened risk of societal violence, we work proactively with local partners to understand which false claims may directly contribute to a risk of imminent physical harm. We then work to identify and remove content making those claims on our platform. For example, in consultation with local experts, we may remove out-of-context media falsely claiming to depict acts of violence, victims or perpetrators of violence, weapons, or military hardware.
II. Harmful Health Misinformation
We consult with leading health organizations to identify health misinformation likely to directly contribute to imminent harm to public health and safety. The harmful health misinformation that we remove includes the following:
  • Misinformation about vaccines. We remove misinformation primarily about vaccines when public health authorities conclude that the information is false and likely to directly contribute to imminent vaccine refusals. They include:
    • Vaccines cause autism (Ex: “Increased vaccinations are why so many kids have autism these days.”)
    • Vaccines cause Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (Ex: “Don’t you know vaccines cause SIDS?”
    • Vaccines cause the disease against which they are meant to protect, or cause the person receiving the vaccine to be more likely to get the disease (Ex: “Taking a vaccine actually makes you more likely to get the disease since there’s a strain of the disease inside. Beware!”)
    • Vaccines or their ingredients are deadly, toxic, poisonous, harmful, or dangerous (Ex: “Sure, you can take vaccines, if you don’t mind putting poison in your body.”)
    • Natural immunity is safer than vaccine-acquired immunity (Ex: “It’s safest to just get the disease rather than the vaccine.”)
    • It is dangerous to get several vaccines in a short period of time, even if that timing is medically recommended (Ex: “Never take more than one vaccine at the same time, that is dangerous - I don’t care what your doctor tells you!”)
    • Vaccines are not effective at preventing the disease against which they purport to protect. However, for the COVID-19, flu, and malaria vaccines, we do not remove claims that those vaccines are not effective in preventing someone from contracting those viruses. (Ex’s: Remove – “The polio vaccine doesn’t do anything to stop you from getting the disease”; Remove – “Vaccines actually don’t do anything to stop you from getting diseases”; Allow – “The vaccine doesn’t stop you from getting COVID-19, that’s why you still need to socially distance and wear a mask when you’re around others.”)
    • Acquiring measles cannot cause death (requires additional information and/or context) (Ex: “Don’t worry about whether you get measles, it can’t be fatal.”)
    • Vitamin C is as effective as vaccines in preventing diseases for which vaccines exist.
  • Misinformation about health during public health emergencies. We remove misinformation during public health emergencies when public health authorities conclude that the information is false and likely to directly contribute to the risk of imminent physical harm, including by contributing to the risk of individuals getting or spreading a harmful disease or refusing an associated vaccine. We identify public health emergencies in partnership with global and local health authorities.
  • Promoting or advocating for harmful miracle cures for health issues. These include treatments where the recommended application, in a health context, is likely to directly contribute to the risk of serious injury or death, and the treatment has no legitimate health use (ex: bleach, disinfectant, black salve, caustic soda).
III. Voter or Census Interference
In an effort to promote election and census integrity, we remove misinformation that is likely to directly contribute to a risk of interference with people’s ability to participate in those processes. This includes the following:
  • Misinformation about the dates, locations, times, and methods for voting, voter registration, or census participation.
  • Misinformation about who can vote, qualifications for voting, whether a vote will be counted, and what information or materials must be provided in order to vote.
  • Misinformation about whether a candidate is running or not.
  • Misinformation about who can participate in the census and what information or materials must be provided in order to participate.
  • Misinformation about government involvement in the census, including, where applicable, that an individual's census information will be shared with another (non-census) government agency.
  • False or unverified claims that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is at a voting location.
  • Explicit false claims that people will be infected by COVID-19 (or another communicable disease) if they participate in the voting process.
  • False claims about current conditions at a U.S. voting location that would make it impossible to vote, as verified by an election authority.
We have additional policies intended to cover calls for violence, the promotion of illegal participation, and calls for coordinated interference in elections, which are represented in other sections of our Community Standards.
For the following content, we include an informative label:
Manipulated Media
Media can be edited in a variety of ways. In many cases, these changes are benign, such as content being cropped or shortened for artistic reasons or music being added. In other cases, the manipulation is not apparent and could mislead.
  • Content Digitally Created or Altered that May Mislead. For content that does not otherwise violate the Community Standards, we may place an informative label on the face of content – or reject content submitted as an advertisement – when the content is a photorealistic image or video, or realistic sounding audio, that was digitally created or altered and creates a particularly high risk of materially deceiving the public on a matter of public importance.
Policy Rationale
Misinformation is different from other types of speech addressed in our Community Standards because there is no way to articulate a comprehensive list of what is prohibited. With graphic violence or hate speech, for instance, our policies specify the speech we prohibit, and even persons who disagree with those policies can follow them. With misinformation, however, we cannot provide such a line. The world is changing constantly, and what is true one minute may not be true the next minute. People also have different levels of information about the world around them, and may believe something is true when it is not. A policy that simply prohibits “misinformation” would not provide useful notice to the people who use our services and would be unenforceable, as we don’t have perfect access to information.
Instead, our policies articulate different categories of misinformation and try to provide clear guidance about how we treat that speech when we see it. For each category, our approach reflects our attempt to balance our values of expression, safety, dignity, authenticity, and privacy.
We remove misinformation where it is likely to directly contribute to the risk of imminent physical harm. We also remove content that is likely to directly contribute to interference with the functioning of political processes. In determining what constitutes misinformation in these categories, we partner with independent experts who possess knowledge and expertise to assess the truth of the content and whether it is likely to directly contribute to the risk of imminent harm. This includes, for instance, partnering with human rights organizations with a presence on the ground in a country to determine the truth of a rumor about civil conflict, and partnering with health organizations during the global COVID-19 pandemic.
For all other misinformation, we focus on reducing its prevalence or creating an environment that fosters a productive dialogue. We know that people often use misinformation in harmless ways, such as to exaggerate a point (“This team has the worst record in the history of the sport!”) or in humor or satire (“My husband just won Husband of the Year.”) They also may share their experience through stories that contain inaccuracies. In some cases, people share deeply-held personal opinions that others consider false or share information that they believe to be true but others consider incomplete or misleading.
Recognizing how common such speech is, we focus on slowing the spread of hoaxes and viral misinformation, and directing users to authoritative information. As part of that effort, we partner with third-party fact checking organizations to review and rate the accuracy of the most viral content on our platforms (see here to learn more about how our fact-checking program works). We also provide resources to increase media and digital literacy so people can decide what to read, trust, and share themselves. We require people to disclose, using our AI-disclosure tool, whenever they post organic content with photorealistic video or realistic-sounding audio that was digitally created or altered, and we may apply penalties if they fail to do so. We may also add a label to certain digitally created or altered content that creates a particularly high risk of misleading people on a matter of public importance.
Finally, we prohibit content and behavior in other areas that often overlap with the spread of misinformation. For example, our Community Standards prohibit fake accounts, fraud, and coordinated inauthentic behavior.
As online and offline environments change and evolve, we will continue to evolve these policies. Pages, Groups, Profiles, and Instagram accountsAccounts that repeatedly share the misinformation listed below may, in addition to having their content removedenforced on in accordance with this policy, receive decreased distribution, limitations on their ability to advertise, or be removed from our platforms. Additional information on what happens when FacebookMeta removes content can be found here.
Guidelines
Misinformation we remove:
We remove the following types of misinformation:
I. Physical Harm or Violence
We remove misinformation or unverifiable rumors that expert partners have determined are likely to directly contribute to a risk of imminent violence or physical harm to people. We define misinformation as content with a claim that is determined to be false by an authoritative third party. We define an unverifiable rumor as a claim whose source expert partners confirm is extremely hard or impossible to trace, for which authoritative sources are absent, where there is not enough specificity for the claim to be debunked, or where the claim is too incredulous or too irrational to be believed.
We know that sometimes misinformation that might appear benign could, in a specific context, contribute to a risk of offline harm, including threats of violence that could contribute to a heightened risk of death, serious injury, or other physical harm. We work with a global network of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), not-for-profit organizations, humanitarian organizations, and international organizations that have expertise in these local dynamics.
In countries experiencing a heightened risk of societal violence, we work proactively with local partners to understand which false claims may directly contribute to a risk of imminent physical harm. We then work to identify and remove content making those claims on our platform. For example, in consultation with local experts, we may remove out-of-context media falsely claiming to depict acts of violence, victims or perpetrators of violence, weapons, or military hardware.
II. Harmful Health Misinformation
We consult with leading health organizations to identify health misinformation likely to directly contribute to imminent harm to public health and safety. The harmful health misinformation that we remove includes the following:
  • Misinformation about vaccines. We remove misinformation primarily about vaccines when public health authorities conclude that the information is false and likely to directly contribute to imminent vaccine refusals. They include:
    • Vaccines cause autism (Ex: “Increased vaccinations are why so many kids have autism these days.”)
    • Vaccines cause Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (Ex: “Don’t you know vaccines cause SIDS?”
    • Vaccines cause the disease against which they are meant to protect, or cause the person receiving the vaccine to be more likely to get the disease (Ex: “Taking a vaccine actually makes you more likely to get the disease since there’s a strain of the disease inside. Beware!”)
    • Vaccines or their ingredients are deadly, toxic, poisonous, harmful, or dangerous (Ex: “Sure, you can take vaccines, if you don’t mind putting poison in your body.”)
    • Natural immunity is safer than vaccine-acquired immunity (Ex: “It’s safest to just get the disease rather than the vaccine.”)
    • It is dangerous to get several vaccines in a short period of time, even if that timing is medically recommended (Ex: “Never take more than one vaccine at the same time, that is dangerous - I don’t care what your doctor tells you!”)
    • Vaccines are not effective at preventing the disease against which they purport to protect. However, for the COVID-19, flu, and malaria vaccines, we do not remove claims that those vaccines are not effective in preventing someone from contracting those viruses. (Ex’s: Remove – “The polio vaccine doesn’t do anything to stop you from getting the disease”; Remove – “Vaccines actually don’t do anything to stop you from getting diseases”; Allow – “The vaccine doesn’t stop you from getting COVID-19, that’s why you still need to socially distance and wear a mask when you’re around others.”)
    • Acquiring measles cannot cause death (requires additional information and/or context) (Ex: “Don’t worry about whether you get measles, it can’t be fatal.”)
    • Vitamin C is as effective as vaccines in preventing diseases for which vaccines exist.
  • Misinformation about health during public health emergencies. We remove misinformation during public health emergencies when public health authorities conclude that the information is false and likely to directly contribute to the risk of imminent physical harm, including by contributing to the risk of individuals getting or spreading a harmful disease or refusing an associated vaccine. We identify public health emergencies in partnership with global and local health authorities.
  • Promoting or advocating for harmful miracle cures for health issues. These include treatments where the recommended application, in a health context, is likely to directly contribute to the risk of serious injury or death, and the treatment has no legitimate health use (ex: bleach, disinfectant, black salve, caustic soda).
III. Voter or Census Interference
In an effort to promote election and census integrity, we remove misinformation that is likely to directly contribute to a risk of interference with people’s ability to participate in those processes. This includes the following:
  • Misinformation about the dates, locations, times, and methods for voting, voter registration, or census participation.
  • Misinformation about who can vote, qualifications for voting, whether a vote will be counted, and what information or materials must be provided in order to vote.
  • Misinformation about whether a candidate is running or not.
  • Misinformation about who can participate in the census and what information or materials must be provided in order to participate.
  • Misinformation about government involvement in the census, including, where applicable, that an individual's census information will be shared with another (non-census) government agency.
  • False or unverified claims that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is at a voting location.
  • Explicit false claims that people will be infected by COVID-19 (or another communicable disease) if they participate in the voting process.
  • False claims about current conditions at a U.S. voting location that would make it impossible to vote, as verified by an election authority.
We have additional policies intended to cover calls for violence, the promotion of illegal participation, and calls for coordinated interference in elections, which are represented in other sections of our Community Standards.
IV. Manipulated Media
Media can be edited in a variety of ways. In many cases, these changes are benign, such as content being cropped or shortened for artistic reasons or music being added. In other cases, the manipulation is not apparent and could mislead, particularly in the case of video content. We remove this content because it can go viral quickly and experts advise that false beliefs regarding manipulated media often cannot be corrected through further discourse.
We remove videos under this policy if specific criteria are met: (1) the video has been edited or synthesized, beyond adjustments for clarity or quality, in ways that are not apparent to an average person, and would likely mislead an average person to believe a subject of the video said words that they did not say; and (2) the video is the product of artificial intelligence or machine learning, including deep learning techniques (e.g., a technical deepfake), that merges, combines, replaces, and/or superimposes content onto a video, creating a video that appears authentic.
For the following content, we include an informative label:
Manipulated Media
Media can be edited in a variety of ways. In many cases, these changes are benign, such as content being cropped or shortened for artistic reasons or music being added. In other cases, the manipulation is not apparent and could mislead.
  • Content Digitally Created or Altered that May Mislead. For content that does not otherwise violate the Community Standards, we may place an informative label on the face of content – or reject content submitted as an advertisement – when the content is a photorealistic image or video, or realistic sounding audio, that was digitally created or altered and creates a particularly high risk of materially deceiving the public on a matter of public importance.
Policy Rationale
Misinformation is different from other types of speech addressed in our Community Standards because there is no way to articulate a comprehensive list of what is prohibited. With graphic violence or hate speech, for instance, our policies specify the speech we prohibit, and even persons who disagree with those policies can follow them. With misinformation, however, we cannot provide such a line. The world is changing constantly, and what is true one minute may not be true the next minute. People also have different levels of information about the world around them, and may believe something is true when it is not. A policy that simply prohibits “misinformation” would not provide useful notice to the people who use our services and would be unenforceable, as we don’t have perfect access to information.
Instead, our policies articulate different categories of misinformation and try to provide clear guidance about how we treat that speech when we see it. For each category, our approach reflects our attempt to balance our values of expression, safety, dignity, authenticity, and privacy.
We remove misinformation where it is likely to directly contribute to the risk of imminent physical harm. We also remove content that is likely to directly contribute to interference with the functioning of political processes and certain highly deceptive manipulated media. In determining what constitutes misinformation in these categories, we partner with independent experts who possess knowledge and expertise to assess the truth of the content and whether it is likely to directly contribute to the risk of imminent harm. This includes, for instance, partnering with human rights organizations with a presence on the ground in a country to determine the truth of a rumor about civil conflict, and partnering with health organizations during the global COVID-19 pandemic.
For all other misinformation, we focus on reducing its prevalence or creating an environment that fosters a productive dialogue. We know that people often use misinformation in harmless ways, such as to exaggerate a point (“This team has the worst record in the history of the sport!”) or in humor or satire (“My husband just won Husband of the Year.”) They also may share their experience through stories that contain inaccuracies. In some cases, people share deeply-held personal opinions that others consider false or share information that they believe to be true but others consider incomplete or misleading.
Recognizing how common such speech is, we focus on slowing the spread of hoaxes and viral misinformation, and directing users to authoritative information. As part of that effort, we partner with third-party fact checking organizations to review and rate the accuracy of the most viral content on our platforms (see here to learn more about how our fact-checking program works). We also provide resources to increase media and digital literacy so people can decide what to read, trust, and share themselves. We require people to disclose, using our AI-disclosure tool, whenever they post organic content with photorealistic video or realistic-sounding audio that was digitally created or altered, and we may apply penalties if they fail to do so. We may also add a label to certain digitally created or altered content that creates a particularly high risk of misleading people on a matter of public importance.
Finally, we prohibit content and behavior in other areas that often overlap with the spread of misinformation. For example, our Community Standards prohibit fake accounts, fraud, and coordinated inauthentic behavior.
As online and offline environments change and evolve, we will continue to evolve these policies. Pages, Groups, Profiles, and Instagram accounts that repeatedly share the misinformation listed below may, in addition to having their content removed, receive decreased distribution, limitations on their ability to advertise, or be removed from our platforms. Additional information on what happens when Facebook removes content can be found here.
Misinformation we remove:
We remove the following types of misinformation:
I. Physical Harm or Violence
We remove misinformation or unverifiable rumors that expert partners have determined are likely to directly contribute to a risk of imminent violence or physical harm to people. We define misinformation as content with a claim that is determined to be false by an authoritative third party. We define an unverifiable rumor as a claim whose source expert partners confirm is extremely hard or impossible to trace, for which authoritative sources are absent, where there is not enough specificity for the claim to be debunked, or where the claim is too incredulous or too irrational to be believed.
We know that sometimes misinformation that might appear benign could, in a specific context, contribute to a risk of offline harm, including threats of violence that could contribute to a heightened risk of death, serious injury, or other physical harm. We work with a global network of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), not-for-profit organizations, humanitarian organizations, and international organizations that have expertise in these local dynamics.
In countries experiencing a heightened risk of societal violence, we work proactively with local partners to understand which false claims may directly contribute to a risk of imminent physical harm. We then work to identify and remove content making those claims on our platform. For example, in consultation with local experts, we may remove out-of-context media falsely claiming to depict acts of violence, victims or perpetrators of violence, weapons, or military hardware.
II. Harmful Health Misinformation
We consult with leading health organizations to identify health misinformation likely to directly contribute to imminent harm to public health and safety. The harmful health misinformation that we remove includes the following:
  • Misinformation about vaccines. We remove misinformation primarily about vaccines when public health authorities conclude that the information is false and likely to directly contribute to imminent vaccine refusals. They include:
    • Vaccines cause autism (Ex: “Increased vaccinations are why so many kids have autism these days.”)
    • Vaccines cause Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (Ex: “Don’t you know vaccines cause SIDS?”
    • Vaccines cause the disease against which they are meant to protect, or cause the person receiving the vaccine to be more likely to get the disease (Ex: “Taking a vaccine actually makes you more likely to get the disease since there’s a strain of the disease inside. Beware!”)
    • Vaccines or their ingredients are deadly, toxic, poisonous, harmful, or dangerous (Ex: “Sure, you can take vaccines, if you don’t mind putting poison in your body.”)
    • Natural immunity is safer than vaccine-acquired immunity (Ex: “It’s safest to just get the disease rather than the vaccine.”)
    • It is dangerous to get several vaccines in a short period of time, even if that timing is medically recommended (Ex: “Never take more than one vaccine at the same time, that is dangerous - I don’t care what your doctor tells you!”)
    • Vaccines are not effective at preventing the disease against which they purport to protect. However, for the COVID-19, flu, and malaria vaccines, we do not remove claims that those vaccines are not effective in preventing someone from contracting those viruses. (Ex’s: Remove – “The polio vaccine doesn’t do anything to stop you from getting the disease”; Remove – “Vaccines actually don’t do anything to stop you from getting diseases”; Allow – “The vaccine doesn’t stop you from getting COVID-19, that’s why you still need to socially distance and wear a mask when you’re around others.”)
    • Acquiring measles cannot cause death (requires additional information and/or context) (Ex: “Don’t worry about whether you get measles, it can’t be fatal.”)
    • Vitamin C is as effective as vaccines in preventing diseases for which vaccines exist.
  • Misinformation about health during public health emergencies. We remove misinformation during public health emergencies when public health authorities conclude that the information is false and likely to directly contribute to the risk of imminent physical harm, including by contributing to the risk of individuals getting or spreading a harmful disease or refusing an associated vaccine. We identify public health emergencies in partnership with global and local health authorities.
  • Promoting or advocating for harmful miracle cures for health issues. These include treatments where the recommended application, in a health context, is likely to directly contribute to the risk of serious injury or death, and the treatment has no legitimate health use (ex: bleach, disinfectant, black salve, caustic soda).
III. Voter or Census Interference
In an effort to promote election and census integrity, we remove misinformation that is likely to directly contribute to a risk of interference with people’s ability to participate in those processes. This includes the following:
  • Misinformation about the dates, locations, times, and methods for voting, voter registration, or census participation.
  • Misinformation about who can vote, qualifications for voting, whether a vote will be counted, and what information or materials must be provided in order to vote.
  • Misinformation about whether a candidate is running or not.
  • Misinformation about who can participate in the census and what information or materials must be provided in order to participate.
  • Misinformation about government involvement in the census, including, where applicable, that an individual's census information will be shared with another (non-census) government agency.
  • False or unverified claims that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is at a voting location.
  • Explicit false claims that people will be infected by COVID-19 (or another communicable disease) if they participate in the voting process.
  • False claims about current conditions at a U.S. voting location that would make it impossible to vote, as verified by an election authority.
We have additional policies intended to cover calls for violence, the promotion of illegal participation, and calls for coordinated interference in elections, which are represented in other sections of our Community Standards.
IV. Manipulated Media
Media can be edited in a variety of ways. In many cases, these changes are benign, such as content being cropped or shortened for artistic reasons or music being added. In other cases, the manipulation is not apparent and could mislead, particularly in the case of video content. We remove this content because it can go viral quickly and experts advise that false beliefs regarding manipulated media often cannot be corrected through further discourse.
We remove videos under this policy if specific criteria are met: (1) the video has been edited or synthesized, beyond adjustments for clarity or quality, in ways that are not apparent to an average person, and would likely mislead an average person to believe a subject of the video said words that they did not say; and (2) the video is the product of artificial intelligence or machine learning, including deep learning techniques (e.g., a technical deepfake), that merges, combines, replaces, and/or superimposes content onto a video, creating a video that appears authentic.
For the following content, we include an informative label:
Manipulated Media
Media can be edited in a variety of ways. In many cases, these changes are benign, such as content being cropped or shortened for artistic reasons or music being added. In other cases, the manipulation is not apparent and could mislead.
  • Content Digitally Created or Altered that May Mislead. For content that does not otherwise violate the Community Standards, we may place an informative label on the face of content – or reject content submitted as an advertisement – when the content is a photorealistic image or video, or realistic sounding audio, that was digitally created or altered and creates a particularly high risk of materially deceiving the public on a matter of public importance.
Policy Rationale
Misinformation is different from other types of speech addressed in our Community Standards because there is no way to articulate a comprehensive list of what is prohibited. With graphic violence or hate speech, for instance, our policies specify the speech we prohibit, and even persons who disagree with those policies can follow them. With misinformation, however, we cannot provide such a line. The world is changing constantly, and what is true one minute may not be true the next minute. People also have different levels of information about the world around them, and may believe something is true when it is not. A policy that simply prohibits “misinformation” would not provide useful notice to the people who use our services and would be unenforceable, as we don’t have perfect access to information.
Instead, our policies articulate different categories of misinformation and try to provide clear guidance about how we treat that speech when we see it. For each category, our approach reflects our attempt to balance our values of expression, safety, dignity, authenticity, and privacy.
We remove misinformation where it is likely to directly contribute to the risk of imminent physical harm. We also remove content that is likely to directly contribute to interference with the functioning of political processes and certain highly deceptive manipulated media. In determining what constitutes misinformation in these categories, we partner with independent experts who possess knowledge and expertise to assess the truth of the content and whether it is likely to directly contribute to the risk of imminent harm. This includes, for instance, partnering with human rights organizations with a presence on the ground in a country to determine the truth of a rumor about civil conflict, and partnering with health organizations during the global COVID-19 pandemic.
For all other misinformation, we focus on reducing its prevalence or creating an environment that fosters a productive dialogue. We know that people often use misinformation in harmless ways, such as to exaggerate a point (“This team has the worst record in the history of the sport!”) or in humor or satire (“My husband just won Husband of the Year.”) They also may share their experience through stories that contain inaccuracies. In some cases, people share deeply-held personal opinions that others consider false or share information that they believe to be true but others consider incomplete or misleading.
Recognizing how common such speech is, we focus on slowing the spread of hoaxes and viral misinformation, and directing users to authoritative information. As part of that effort, we partner with third-party fact checking organizations to review and rate the accuracy of the most viral content on our platforms (see here to learn more about how our fact-checking program works). We also provide resources to increase media and digital literacy so people can decide what to read, trust, and share themselves. We require people to disclose, using our AI-disclosure tool, whenever they post organic content with photorealistic video or realistic-sounding audio that was digitally created or altered, and we may apply penalties if they fail to do so.We may also add a label to certain digitally created or altered content that creates a particularly high risk of misleading people on a matter of public importance.
Finally, we prohibit content and behavior in other areas that often overlap with the spread of misinformation. For example, our Community Standards prohibit fake accounts, fraud, and coordinated inauthentic behavior.
As online and offline environments change and evolve, we will continue to evolve these policies. Pages, Groups, Profiles, and Instagram accounts that repeatedly share the misinformation listed below may, in addition to having their content removed, receive decreased distribution, limitations on their ability to advertise, or be removed from our platforms. Additional information on what happens when Facebook removes content can be found here.
Misinformation we remove:
We remove the following types of misinformation:
I. Physical Harm or Violence
We remove misinformation or unverifiable rumors that expert partners have determined are likely to directly contribute to a risk of imminent violence or physical harm to people. We define misinformation as content with a claim that is determined to be false by an authoritative third party. We define an unverifiable rumor as a claim whose source expert partners confirm is extremely hard or impossible to trace, for which authoritative sources are absent, where there is not enough specificity for the claim to be debunked, or where the claim is too incredulous or too irrational to be believed.
We know that sometimes misinformation that might appear benign could, in a specific context, contribute to a risk of offline harm, including threats of violence that could contribute to a heightened risk of death, serious injury, or other physical harm. We work with a global network of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), not-for-profit organizations, humanitarian organizations, and international organizations that have expertise in these local dynamics.
In countries experiencing a heightened risk of societal violence, we work proactively with local partners to understand which false claims may directly contribute to a risk of imminent physical harm. We then work to identify and remove content making those claims on our platform. For example, in consultation with local experts, we may remove out-of-context media falsely claiming to depict acts of violence, victims or perpetrators of violence, weapons, or military hardware.
II. Harmful Health Misinformation
We consult with leading health organizations to identify health misinformation likely to directly contribute to imminent harm to public health and safety. The harmful health misinformation that we remove includes the following:
  • Misinformation about vaccines. We remove misinformation primarily about vaccines when public health authorities conclude that the information is false and likely to directly contribute to imminent vaccine refusals. They include:
    • Vaccines cause autism (Ex: “Increased vaccinations are why so many kids have autism these days.”)
    • Vaccines cause Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (Ex: “Don’t you know vaccines cause SIDS?”
    • Vaccines cause the disease against which they are meant to protect, or cause the person receiving the vaccine to be more likely to get the disease (Ex: “Taking a vaccine actually makes you more likely to get the disease since there’s a strain of the disease inside. Beware!”)
    • Vaccines or their ingredients are deadly, toxic, poisonous, harmful, or dangerous (Ex: “Sure, you can take vaccines, if you don’t mind putting poison in your body.”)
    • Natural immunity is safer than vaccine-acquired immunity (Ex: “It’s safest to just get the disease rather than the vaccine.”)
    • It is dangerous to get several vaccines in a short period of time, even if that timing is medically recommended (Ex: “Never take more than one vaccine at the same time, that is dangerous - I don’t care what your doctor tells you!”)
    • Vaccines are not effective at preventing the disease against which they purport to protect. However, for the COVID-19, flu, and malaria vaccines, we do not remove claims that those vaccines are not effective in preventing someone from contracting those viruses. (Ex’s: Remove – “The polio vaccine doesn’t do anything to stop you from getting the disease”; Remove – “Vaccines actually don’t do anything to stop you from getting diseases”; Allow – “The vaccine doesn’t stop you from getting COVID-19, that’s why you still need to socially distance and wear a mask when you’re around others.”)
    • Acquiring measles cannot cause death (requires additional information and/or context) (Ex: “Don’t worry about whether you get measles, it can’t be fatal.”)
    • Vitamin C is as effective as vaccines in preventing diseases for which vaccines exist.
  • Misinformation about health during public health emergencies. We remove misinformation during public health emergencies when public health authorities conclude that the information is false and likely to directly contribute to the risk of imminent physical harm, including by contributing to the risk of individuals getting or spreading a harmful disease or refusing an associated vaccine. We identify public health emergencies in partnership with global and local health authorities. This currently includes certain false claims related to COVID-19 in countries still experiencing a publicly announced state of emergency regarding the virus. Click here for a complete set of rules regarding what misinformation we do not allow regarding COVID-19 and vaccines.
  • Promoting or advocating for harmful miracle cures for health issues. These include treatments where the recommended application, in a health context, is likely to directly contribute to the risk of serious injury or death, and the treatment has no legitimate health use (ex: bleach, disinfectant, black salve, caustic soda).
III. Voter or Census Interference
In an effort to promote election and census integrity, we remove misinformation that is likely to directly contribute to a risk of interference with people’s ability to participate in those processes. This includes the following:
  • Misinformation about the dates, locations, times, and methods for voting, voter registration, or census participation.
  • Misinformation about who can vote, qualifications for voting, whether a vote will be counted, and what information or materials must be provided in order to vote.
  • Misinformation about whether a candidate is running or not.
  • Misinformation about who can participate in the census and what information or materials must be provided in order to participate.
  • Misinformation about government involvement in the census, including, where applicable, that an individual's census information will be shared with another (non-census) government agency.
  • False or unverified claims that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is at a voting location.
  • Explicit false claims that people will be infected by COVID-19 (or another communicable disease) if they participate in the voting process.
  • False claims about current conditions at a U.S. voting location that would make it impossible to vote, as verified by an election authority.
We have additional policies intended to cover calls for violence, the promotion of illegal participation, and calls for coordinated interference in elections, which are represented in other sections of our Community Standards.
IV. Manipulated Media
Media can be edited in a variety of ways. In many cases, these changes are benign, such as content being cropped or shortened for artistic reasons or music being added. In other cases, the manipulation is not apparent and could mislead, particularly in the case of video content. We remove this content because it can go viral quickly and experts advise that false beliefs regarding manipulated media often cannot be corrected through further discourse.
We remove videos under this policy if specific criteria are met: (1) the video has been edited or synthesized, beyond adjustments for clarity or quality, in ways that are not apparent to an average person, and would likely mislead an average person to believe a subject of the video said words that they did not say; and (2) the video is the product of artificial intelligence or machine learning, including deep learning techniques (e.g., a technical deepfake), that merges, combines, replaces, and/or superimposes content onto a video, creating a video that appears authentic.
For the following content, we include an informative label:
Content Digitally Created or Altered that May Mislead
For content that does not otherwise violate the Community Standards, we may place an informative label on the face of content – or reject content submitted as an advertisement – when the content is a photorealistic image or video, or realistic sounding audio, that was digitally created or altered and creates a particularly high risk of materially deceiving the public on a matter of public importance.
Policy Rationale
Misinformation is different from other types of speech addressed in our Community Standards because there is no way to articulate a comprehensive list of what is prohibited. With graphic violence or hate speech, for instance, our policies specify the speech we prohibit, and even persons who disagree with those policies can follow them. With misinformation, however, we cannot provide such a line. The world is changing constantly, and what is true one minute may not be true the next minute. People also have different levels of information about the world around them, and may believe something is true when it is not. A policy that simply prohibits “misinformation” would not provide useful notice to the people who use our services and would be unenforceable, as we don’t have perfect access to information.
Instead, our policies articulate different categories of misinformation and try to provide clear guidance about how we treat that speech when we see it. For each category, our approach reflects our attempt to balance our values of expression, safety, dignity, authenticity, and privacy.
We remove misinformation where it is likely to directly contribute to the risk of imminent physical harm. We also remove content that is likely to directly contribute to interference with the functioning of political processes and certain highly deceptive manipulated media. In determining what constitutes misinformation in these categories, we partner with independent experts who possess knowledge and expertise to assess the truth of the content and whether it is likely to directly contribute to the risk of imminent harm. This includes, for instance, partnering with human rights organizations with a presence on the ground in a country to determine the truth of a rumor about civil conflict, and partnering with health organizations during the global COVID-19 pandemic.
For all other misinformation, we focus on reducing its prevalence or creating an environment that fosters a productive dialogue. We know that people often use misinformation in harmless ways, such as to exaggerate a point (“This team has the worst record in the history of the sport!”) or in humor or satire (“My husband just won Husband of the Year.”) They also may share their experience through stories that contain inaccuracies. In some cases, people share deeply-held personal opinions that others consider false or share information that they believe to be true but others consider incomplete or misleading.
Recognizing how common such speech is, we focus on slowing the spread of hoaxes and viral misinformation, and directing users to authoritative information. As part of that effort, we partner with third-party fact checking organizations to review and rate the accuracy of the most viral content on our platforms (see here to learn more about how our fact-checking program works). We also provide resources to increase media and digital literacy so people can decide what to read, trust, and share themselves. We require people to disclose, using our AI-disclosure tool, whenever they post organic content with photorealistic video or realistic-sounding audio that was digitally created or altered, and we may apply penalties if they fail to do so.We may also add a label to certain digitally created or altered content that creates a particularly high risk of misleading people on a matter of public importance.
Finally, we prohibit content and behavior in other areas that often overlap with the spread of misinformation. For example, our Community Standards prohibit fake accounts, fraud, and coordinated inauthentic behavior.
As online and offline environments change and evolve, we will continue to evolve these policies. Pages, Groups, Profiles, and Instagram accounts that repeatedly share the misinformation listed below may, in addition to having their content removed, receive decreased distribution, limitations on their ability to advertise, or be removed from our platforms. Additional information on what happens when Facebook removes content can be found here.
Misinformation we remove:
We remove the following types of misinformation:
I. Physical Harm or Violence
We remove misinformation or unverifiable rumors that expert partners have determined are likely to directly contribute to a risk of imminent violence or physical harm to people. We define misinformation as content with a claim that is determined to be false by an authoritative third party. We define an unverifiable rumor as a claim whose source expert partners confirm is extremely hard or impossible to trace, for which authoritative sources are absent, where there is not enough specificity for the claim to be debunked, or where the claim is too incredulous or too irrational to be believed.
We know that sometimes misinformation that might appear benign could, in a specific context, contribute to a risk of offline harm, including threats of violence that could contribute to a heightened risk of death, serious injury, or other physical harm. We work with a global network of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), not-for-profit organizations, humanitarian organizations, and international organizations that have expertise in these local dynamics.
In countries experiencing a heightened risk of societal violence, we work proactively with local partners to understand which false claims may directly contribute to a risk of imminent physical harm. We then work to identify and remove content making those claims on our platform. For example, in consultation with local experts, we may remove out-of-context media falsely claiming to depict acts of violence, victims or perpetrators of violence, weapons, or military hardware.
II. Harmful Health Misinformation
We consult with leading health organizations to identify health misinformation likely to directly contribute to imminent harm to public health and safety. The harmful health misinformation that we remove includes the following:
  • Misinformation about vaccines. We remove misinformation primarily about vaccines when public health authorities conclude that the information is false and likely to directly contribute to imminent vaccine refusals. They include:
    • Vaccines cause autism (Ex: “Increased vaccinations are why so many kids have autism these days.”)
    • Vaccines cause Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (Ex: “Don’t you know vaccines cause SIDS?”
    • Vaccines cause the disease against which they are meant to protect, or cause the person receiving the vaccine to be more likely to get the disease (Ex: “Taking a vaccine actually makes you more likely to get the disease since there’s a strain of the disease inside. Beware!”)
    • Vaccines or their ingredients are deadly, toxic, poisonous, harmful, or dangerous (Ex: “Sure, you can take vaccines, if you don’t mind putting poison in your body.”)
    • Natural immunity is safer than vaccine-acquired immunity (Ex: “It’s safest to just get the disease rather than the vaccine.”)
    • It is dangerous to get several vaccines in a short period of time, even if that timing is medically recommended (Ex: “Never take more than one vaccine at the same time, that is dangerous - I don’t care what your doctor tells you!”)
    • Vaccines are not effective at preventing the disease against which they purport to protect. However, for the COVID-19, flu, and malaria vaccines, we do not remove claims that those vaccines are not effective in preventing someone from contracting those viruses. (Ex’s: Remove – “The polio vaccine doesn’t do anything to stop you from getting the disease”; Remove – “Vaccines actually don’t do anything to stop you from getting diseases”; Allow – “The vaccine doesn’t stop you from getting COVID-19, that’s why you still need to socially distance and wear a mask when you’re around others.”)
    • Acquiring measles cannot cause death (requires additional information and/or context) (Ex: “Don’t worry about whether you get measles, it can’t be fatal.”)
    • Vitamin C is as effective as vaccines in preventing diseases for which vaccines exist.
  • Misinformation about health during public health emergencies. We remove misinformation during public health emergencies when public health authorities conclude that the information is false and likely to directly contribute to the risk of imminent physical harm, including by contributing to the risk of individuals getting or spreading a harmful disease or refusing an associated vaccine. We identify public health emergencies in partnership with global and local health authorities. This currently includes certain false claims related to COVID-19 in countries still experiencing a publicly announced state of emergency regarding the virus. Click here for a complete set of rules regarding what misinformation we do not allow regarding COVID-19 and vaccines.
  • Promoting or advocating for harmful miracle cures for health issues. These include treatments where the recommended application, in a health context, is likely to directly contribute to the risk of serious injury or death, and the treatment has no legitimate health use (ex: bleach, disinfectant, black salve, caustic soda).
III. Voter or Census Interference
In an effort to promote election and census integrity, we remove misinformation that is likely to directly contribute to a risk of interference with people’s ability to participate in those processes. This includes the following:
  • Misinformation about the dates, locations, times, and methods for voting, voter registration, or census participation.
  • Misinformation about who can vote, qualifications for voting, whether a vote will be counted, and what information or materials must be provided in order to vote.
  • Misinformation about whether a candidate is running or not.
  • Misinformation about who can participate in the census and what information or materials must be provided in order to participate.
  • Misinformation about government involvement in the census, including, where applicable, that an individual's census information will be shared with another (non-census) government agency.
  • False or unverified claims that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is at a voting location.
  • Explicit false claims that people will be infected by COVID-19 (or another communicable disease) if they participate in the voting process.
  • False claims about current conditions at a U.S. voting location that would make it impossible to vote, as verified by an election authority.
We have additional policies intended to cover calls for violence, the promotion of illegal participation, and calls for coordinated interference in elections, which are represented in other sections of our Community Standards.
IV. Manipulated Media
Media can be edited in a variety of ways. In many cases, these changes are benign, such as content being cropped or shortened for artistic reasons or music being added. In other cases, the manipulation is not apparent and could mislead, particularly in the case of video content. We remove this content because it can go viral quickly and experts advise that false beliefs regarding manipulated media often cannot be corrected through further discourse.
We remove videos under this policy if specific criteria are met: (1) the video has been edited or synthesized, beyond adjustments for clarity or quality, in ways that are not apparent to an average person, and would likely mislead an average person to believe a subject of the video said words that they did not say; and (2) the video is the product of artificial intelligence or machine learning, including deep learning techniques (e.g., a technical deepfake), that merges, combines, replaces, and/or superimposes content onto a video, creating a video that appears authentic.
For the following content, we include an informative label:
Content Digitally Created or Altered that May Mislead
For content that does not otherwise violate the Community Standards, we may place an informative label on the face of content – or reject content submitted as an advertisement – when the content is a photorealistic image or video, or realistic sounding audio, that was digitally created or altered and creates a particularly high risk of materially deceiving the public on a matter of public importance.
Policy Rationale
Misinformation is different from other types of speech addressed in our Community Standards because there is no way to articulate a comprehensive list of what is prohibited. With graphic violence or hate speech, for instance, our policies specify the speech we prohibit, and even persons who disagree with those policies can follow them. With misinformation, however, we cannot provide such a line. The world is changing constantly, and what is true one minute may not be true the next minute. People also have different levels of information about the world around them, and may believe something is true when it is not. A policy that simply prohibits “misinformation” would not provide useful notice to the people who use our services and would be unenforceable, as we don’t have perfect access to information.
Instead, our policies articulate different categories of misinformation and try to provide clear guidance about how we treat that speech when we see it. For each category, our approach reflects our attempt to balance our values of expression, safety, dignity, authenticity, and privacy.
We remove misinformation where it is likely to directly contribute to the risk of imminent physical harm. We also remove content that is likely to directly contribute to interference with the functioning of political processes and certain highly deceptive manipulated media. In determining what constitutes misinformation in these categories, we partner with independent experts who possess knowledge and expertise to assess the truth of the content and whether it is likely to directly contribute to the risk of imminent harm. This includes, for instance, partnering with human rights organizations with a presence on the ground in a country to determine the truth of a rumor about civil conflict, and partnering with health organizations during the global COVID-19 pandemic.
For all other misinformation, we focus on reducing its prevalence or creating an environment that fosters a productive dialogue. We know that people often use misinformation in harmless ways, such as to exaggerate a point (“This team has the worst record in the history of the sport!”) or in humor or satire (“My husband just won Husband of the Year.”) They also may share their experience through stories that contain inaccuracies. In some cases, people share deeply-held personal opinions that others consider false or share information that they believe to be true but others consider incomplete or misleading.
Recognizing how common such speech is, we focus on slowing the spread of hoaxes and viral misinformation, and directing users to authoritative information. As part of that effort, we partner with third-party fact checking organizations to review and rate the accuracy of the most viral content on our platforms (see here to learn more about how our fact-checking program works). We also provide resources to increase media and digital literacy so people can decide what to read, trust, and share themselves. We may also add a label to certain digitally created or altered content that creates a particularly high risk of misleading people on a matter of public importance.
Finally, we prohibit content and behavior in other areas that often overlap with the spread of misinformation. For example, our Community Standards prohibit fake accounts, fraud, and coordinated inauthentic behavior.
As online and offline environments change and evolve, we will continue to evolve these policies. Pages, Groups, Profiles, and Instagram accounts that repeatedly share the misinformation listed below may, in addition to having their content removed, receive decreased distribution, limitations on their ability to advertise, or be removed from our platforms. Additional information on what happens when Facebook removes content can be found here.
Misinformation we remove:
We remove the following types of misinformation:
I. Physical Harm or Violence
We remove misinformation or unverifiable rumors that expert partners have determined are likely to directly contribute to a risk of imminent violence or physical harm to people. We define misinformation as content with a claim that is determined to be false by an authoritative third party. We define an unverifiable rumor as a claim whose source expert partners confirm is extremely hard or impossible to trace, for which authoritative sources are absent, where there is not enough specificity for the claim to be debunked, or where the claim is too incredulous or too irrational to be believed.
We know that sometimes misinformation that might appear benign could, in a specific context, contribute to a risk of offline harm, including threats of violence that could contribute to a heightened risk of death, serious injury, or other physical harm. We work with a global network of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), not-for-profit organizations, humanitarian organizations, and international organizations that have expertise in these local dynamics.
In countries experiencing a heightened risk of societal violence, we work proactively with local partners to understand which false claims may directly contribute to a risk of imminent physical harm. We then work to identify and remove content making those claims on our platform. For example, in consultation with local experts, we may remove out-of-context media falsely claiming to depict acts of violence, victims or perpetrators of violence, weapons, or military hardware.
II. Harmful Health Misinformation
We consult with leading health organizations to identify health misinformation likely to directly contribute to imminent harm to public health and safety. The harmful health misinformation that we remove includes the following:
  • Misinformation about vaccines. We remove misinformation primarily about vaccines when public health authorities conclude that the information is false and likely to directly contribute to imminent vaccine refusals. They include:
    • Vaccines cause autism (Ex: “Increased vaccinations are why so many kids have autism these days.”)
    • Vaccines cause Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (Ex: “Don’t you know vaccines cause SIDS?”
    • Vaccines cause the disease against which they are meant to protect, or cause the person receiving the vaccine to be more likely to get the disease (Ex: “Taking a vaccine actually makes you more likely to get the disease since there’s a strain of the disease inside. Beware!”)
    • Vaccines or their ingredients are deadly, toxic, poisonous, harmful, or dangerous (Ex: “Sure, you can take vaccines, if you don’t mind putting poison in your body.”)
    • Natural immunity is safer than vaccine-acquired immunity (Ex: “It’s safest to just get the disease rather than the vaccine.”)
    • It is dangerous to get several vaccines in a short period of time, even if that timing is medically recommended (Ex: “Never take more than one vaccine at the same time, that is dangerous - I don’t care what your doctor tells you!”)
    • Vaccines are not effective at preventing the disease against which they purport to protect. However, for the COVID-19, flu, and malaria vaccines, we do not remove claims that those vaccines are not effective in preventing someone from contracting those viruses. (Ex’s: Remove – “The polio vaccine doesn’t do anything to stop you from getting the disease”; Remove – “Vaccines actually don’t do anything to stop you from getting diseases”; Allow – “The vaccine doesn’t stop you from getting COVID-19, that’s why you still need to socially distance and wear a mask when you’re around others.”)
    • Acquiring measles cannot cause death (requires additional information and/or context) (Ex: “Don’t worry about whether you get measles, it can’t be fatal.”)
    • Vitamin C is as effective as vaccines in preventing diseases for which vaccines exist.
  • Misinformation about health during public health emergencies. We remove misinformation during public health emergencies when public health authorities conclude that the information is false and likely to directly contribute to the risk of imminent physical harm, including by contributing to the risk of individuals getting or spreading a harmful disease or refusing an associated vaccine. We identify public health emergencies in partnership with global and local health authorities. This currently includes certain false claims related to COVID-19 in countries still experiencing a publicly announced state of emergency regarding the virus. Click here for a complete set of rules regarding what misinformation we do not allow regarding COVID-19 and vaccines.
  • Promoting or advocating for harmful miracle cures for health issues. These include treatments where the recommended application, in a health context, is likely to directly contribute to the risk of serious injury or death, and the treatment has no legitimate health use (ex: bleach, disinfectant, black salve, caustic soda).
III. Voter or Census Interference
In an effort to promote election and census integrity, we remove misinformation that is likely to directly contribute to a risk of interference with people’s ability to participate in those processes. This includes the following:
  • Misinformation about the dates, locations, times, and methods for voting, voter registration, or census participation.
  • Misinformation about who can vote, qualifications for voting, whether a vote will be counted, and what information or materials must be provided in order to vote.
  • Misinformation about whether a candidate is running or not.
  • Misinformation about who can participate in the census and what information or materials must be provided in order to participate.
  • Misinformation about government involvement in the census, including, where applicable, that an individual's census information will be shared with another (non-census) government agency.
  • False or unverified claims that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is at a voting location.
  • Explicit false claims that people will be infected by COVID-19 (or another communicable disease) if they participate in the voting process.
  • False claims about current conditions at a U.S. voting location that would make it impossible to vote, as verified by an election authority.
We have additional policies intended to cover calls for violence, the promotion of illegal participation, and calls for coordinated interference in elections, which are represented in other sections of our Community Standards.
IV. Manipulated Media
Media can be edited in a variety of ways. In many cases, these changes are benign, such as content being cropped or shortened for artistic reasons or music being added. In other cases, the manipulation is not apparent and could mislead, particularly in the case of video content. We remove this content because it can go viral quickly and experts advise that false beliefs regarding manipulated media often cannot be corrected through further discourse.
We remove videos under this policy if specific criteria are met: (1) the video has been edited or synthesized, beyond adjustments for clarity or quality, in ways that are not apparent to an average person, and would likely mislead an average person to believe a subject of the video said words that they did not say; and (2) the video is the product of artificial intelligence or machine learning, including deep learning techniques (e.g., a technical deepfake), that merges, combines, replaces, and/or superimposes content onto a video, creating a video that appears authentic.
For the following content, we include an informative label:
Content Digitally Created or Altered that May Mislead
For content that does not otherwise violate the Community Standards, we may place an informative label on the face of content – or reject content submitted as an advertisement – when the content is a photorealistic image or video, or realistic sounding audio, that was digitally created or altered and creates a particularly high risk of materially deceiving the public on a matter of public importance.
Policy Rationale
Misinformation is different from other types of speech addressed in our Community Standards because there is no way to articulate a comprehensive list of what is prohibited. With graphic violence or hate speech, for instance, our policies specify the speech we prohibit, and even persons who disagree with those policies can follow them. With misinformation, however, we cannot provide such a line. The world is changing constantly, and what is true one minute may not be true the next minute. People also have different levels of information about the world around them, and may believe something is true when it is not. A policy that simply prohibits “misinformation” would not provide useful notice to the people who use our services and would be unenforceable, as we don’t have perfect access to information.
Instead, our policies articulate different categories of misinformation and try to provide clear guidance about how we treat that speech when we see it. For each category, our approach reflects our attempt to balance our values of expression, safety, dignity, authenticity, and privacy.
We remove misinformation where it is likely to directly contribute to the risk of imminent physical harm. We also remove content that is likely to directly contribute to interference with the functioning of political processes. In determining what constitutes misinformation in these categories, we partner with independent experts who possess knowledge and expertise to assess the truth of the content and whether it is likely to directly contribute to the risk of imminent harm. This includes, for instance, partnering with human rights organizations with a presence on the ground in a country to determine the truth of a rumor about civil conflict.
For all other misinformation, we focus on reducing its prevalence or creating an environment that fosters a productive dialogue. We know that people often use misinformation in harmless ways, such as to exaggerate a point (“This team has the worst record in the history of the sport!”) or in humor or satire (“My husband just won Husband of the Year.”) They also may share their experience through stories that contain inaccuracies. In some cases, people share deeply-held personal opinions that others consider false or share information that they believe to be true but others consider incomplete or misleading.
Recognizing how common such speech is, we focus on slowing the spread of hoaxes and viral misinformation, and directing users to authoritative information. As part of that effort, we partner with third-party fact checking organizations to review and rate the accuracy of the most viral content on our platforms (see here to learn more about how our fact-checking program works). We also provide resources to increase media and digital literacy so people can decide what to read, trust, and share themselves. We require people to disclose, using our AI-disclosure tool, whenever they post organic content with photorealistic video or realistic-sounding audio that was digitally created or altered, and we may apply penalties if they fail to do so. We may also add a label to certain digitally created or altered content that creates a particularly high risk of misleading people on a matter of public importance.
Finally, we prohibit content and behavior in other areas that often overlap with the spread of misinformation. For example, our Community Standards prohibit fake accounts, fraud, and coordinated inauthentic behavior.
As online and offline environments change and evolve, we will continue to evolve these policies. Accounts that repeatedly share the misinformation listed below may, in addition to having their content enforced on in accordance with this policy, receive decreased distribution, limitations on their ability to advertise, or be removed from our platforms. Additional information on what happens when Meta removes content can be found here.
Misinformation we remove:
We remove the following types of misinformation:
I. Physical Harm or Violence
We remove misinformation or unverifiable rumors that expert partners have determined are likely to directly contribute to a risk of imminent violence or physical harm to people. We define misinformation as content with a claim that is determined to be false by an authoritative third party. We define an unverifiable rumor as a claim whose source expert partners confirm is extremely hard or impossible to trace, for which authoritative sources are absent, where there is not enough specificity for the claim to be debunked, or where the claim is too incredulous or too irrational to be believed.
We know that sometimes misinformation that might appear benign could, in a specific context, contribute to a risk of offline harm, including threats of violence that could contribute to a heightened risk of death, serious injury, or other physical harm. We work with a global network of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), not-for-profit organizations, humanitarian organizations, and international organizations that have expertise in these local dynamics.
In countries experiencing a heightened risk of societal violence, we work proactively with local partners to understand which false claims may directly contribute to a risk of imminent physical harm. We then work to identify and remove content making those claims on our platform. For example, in consultation with local experts, we may remove out-of-context media falsely claiming to depict acts of violence, victims or perpetrators of violence, weapons, or military hardware.
II. Harmful Health Misinformation
We consult with leading health organizations to identify health misinformation likely to directly contribute to imminent harm to public health and safety. The harmful health misinformation that we remove includes the following:
  • Misinformation about vaccines. We remove misinformation primarily about vaccines when public health authorities conclude that the information is false and likely to directly contribute to imminent vaccine refusals. They include:
    • Vaccines cause autism (Ex: “Increased vaccinations are why so many kids have autism these days.”)
    • Vaccines cause Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (Ex: “Don’t you know vaccines cause SIDS?”
    • Vaccines cause the disease against which they are meant to protect, or cause the person receiving the vaccine to be more likely to get the disease (Ex: “Taking a vaccine actually makes you more likely to get the disease since there’s a strain of the disease inside. Beware!”)
    • Vaccines or their ingredients are deadly, toxic, poisonous, harmful, or dangerous (Ex: “Sure, you can take vaccines, if you don’t mind putting poison in your body.”)
    • Natural immunity is safer than vaccine-acquired immunity (Ex: “It’s safest to just get the disease rather than the vaccine.”)
    • It is dangerous to get several vaccines in a short period of time, even if that timing is medically recommended (Ex: “Never take more than one vaccine at the same time, that is dangerous - I don’t care what your doctor tells you!”)
    • Vaccines are not effective at preventing the disease against which they purport to protect. However, for the COVID-19, flu, and malaria vaccines, we do not remove claims that those vaccines are not effective in preventing someone from contracting those viruses. (Ex’s: Remove – “The polio vaccine doesn’t do anything to stop you from getting the disease”; Remove – “Vaccines actually don’t do anything to stop you from getting diseases”; Allow – “The vaccine doesn’t stop you from getting COVID-19, that’s why you still need to socially distance and wear a mask when you’re around others.”)
    • Acquiring measles cannot cause death (requires additional information and/or context) (Ex: “Don’t worry about whether you get measles, it can’t be fatal.”)
    • Vitamin C is as effective as vaccines in preventing diseases for which vaccines exist.
  • Misinformation about health during public health emergencies. We remove misinformation during public health emergencies when public health authorities conclude that the information is false and likely to directly contribute to the risk of imminent physical harm, including by contributing to the risk of individuals getting or spreading a harmful disease or refusing an associated vaccine. We identify public health emergencies in partnership with global and local health authorities. This currently includes certain false claims related to COVID-19 in countries still experiencing a publicly announced state of emergency regarding the virus. Click here for a complete set of rules regarding what misinformation we do not allow regarding COVID-19 and vaccines.
  • Promoting or advocating for harmful miracle cures for health issues. These include treatments where the recommended application, in a health context, is likely to directly contribute to the risk of serious injury or death, and the treatment has no legitimate health use (ex: bleach, disinfectant, black salve, caustic soda).
III. Voter or Census Interference
In an effort to promote election and census integrity, we remove misinformation that is likely to directly contribute to a risk of interference with people’s ability to participate in those processes. This includes the following:
  • Misinformation about the dates, locations, times, and methods for voting, voter registration, or census participation.
  • Misinformation about who can vote, qualifications for voting, whether a vote will be counted, and what information or materials must be provided in order to vote.
  • Misinformation about whether a candidate is running or not.
  • Misinformation about who can participate in the census and what information or materials must be provided in order to participate.
  • Misinformation about government involvement in the census, including, where applicable, that an individual's census information will be shared with another (non-census) government agency.
  • Content falsely claimingFalse or unverified claimsthat the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is at a voting location.
  • Explicit false claims that people will be infected by COVID-19 (or another communicable disease) if they participate in the voting process.
  • False claims about current conditions at a U.S. voting location that would make it impossible to vote, as verified by an election authority.
We have additional policies intended to cover calls for violence, the promotion of illegal participation, and calls for coordinated interference in elections, which are represented in other sections of our Community Standards.
IV. Manipulated Media
Media can be edited in a variety of ways. In many cases, these changes are benign, such as content being cropped or shortened for artistic reasons or music being added. In other cases, the manipulation is not apparent and could mislead, particularly in the case of video content. We remove this content because it can go viral quickly and experts advise that false beliefs regarding manipulated media often cannot be corrected through further discourse.
We remove videos under this policy if specific criteria are met: (1) the video has been edited or synthesized, beyond adjustments for clarity or quality, in ways that are not apparent to an average person, and would likely mislead an average person to believe a subject of the video said words that they did not say; and (2) the video is the product of artificial intelligence or machine learning, including deep learning techniques (e.g., a technical deepfake), that merges, combines, replaces, and/or superimposes content onto a video, creating a video that appears authentic.
Policy Rationale
Misinformation is different from other types of speech addressed in our Community Standards because there is no way to articulate a comprehensive list of what is prohibited. With graphic violence or hate speech, for instance, our policies specify the speech we prohibit, and even persons who disagree with those policies can follow them. With misinformation, however, we cannot provide such a line. The world is changing constantly, and what is true one minute may not be true the next minute. People also have different levels of information about the world around them, and may believe something is true when it is not. A policy that simply prohibits “misinformation” would not provide useful notice to the people who use our services and would be unenforceable, as we don’t have perfect access to information.
Instead, our policies articulate different categories of misinformation and try to provide clear guidance about how we treat that speech when we see it. For each category, our approach reflects our attempt to balance our values of expression, safety, dignity, authenticity, and privacy.
We remove misinformation where it is likely to directly contribute to the risk of imminent physical harm. We also remove content that is likely to directly contribute to interference with the functioning of political processes. In determining what constitutes misinformation in these categories, we partner with independent experts who possess knowledge and expertise to assess the truth of the content and whether it is likely to directly contribute to the risk of imminent harm. This includes, for instance, partnering with human rights organizations with a presence on the ground in a country to determine the truth of a rumor about civil conflict.
For all other misinformation, we focus on reducing its prevalence or creating an environment that fosters a productive dialogue. We know that people often use misinformation in harmless ways, such as to exaggerate a point (“This team has the worst record in the history of the sport!”) or in humor or satire (“My husband just won Husband of the Year.”) They also may share their experience through stories that contain inaccuracies. In some cases, people share deeply-held personal opinions that others consider false or share information that they believe to be true but others consider incomplete or misleading.
Recognizing how common such speech is, we focus on slowing the spread of hoaxes and viral misinformation, and directing users to authoritative information. As part of that effort, we partner with third-party fact checking organizations to review and rate the accuracy of the most viral content on our platforms (see here to learn more about how our fact-checking program works). We also provide resources to increase media and digital literacy so people can decide what to read, trust, and share themselves. We require people to disclose, using our AI-disclosure tool, whenever they post organic content with photorealistic video or realistic-sounding audio that was digitally created or altered, and we may apply penalties if they fail to do so. We may also add a label to certain digitally created or altered content that creates a particularly high risk of misleading people on a matter of public importance.
Finally, we prohibit content and behavior in other areas that often overlap with the spread of misinformation. For example, our Community Standards prohibit fake accounts, fraud, and coordinated inauthentic behavior.
As online and offline environments change and evolve, we will continue to evolve these policies. Accounts that repeatedly share the misinformation listed below may, in addition to having their content enforced on in accordance with this policy, receive decreased distribution, limitations on their ability to advertise, or be removed from our platforms. Additional information on what happens when Meta removes content can be found here.
Misinformation we remove:
We remove the following types of misinformation:
I. Physical Harm or Violence
We remove misinformation or unverifiable rumors that expert partners have determined are likely to directly contribute to a risk of imminent violence or physical harm to people. We define misinformation as content with a claim that is determined to be false by an authoritative third party. We define an unverifiable rumor as a claim whose source expert partners confirm is extremely hard or impossible to trace, for which authoritative sources are absent, where there is not enough specificity for the claim to be debunked, or where the claim is too incredulous or too irrational to be believed.
We know that sometimes misinformation that might appear benign could, in a specific context, contribute to a risk of offline harm, including threats of violence that could contribute to a heightened risk of death, serious injury, or other physical harm. We work with a global network of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), not-for-profit organizations, humanitarian organizations, and international organizations that have expertise in these local dynamics.
In countries experiencing a heightened risk of societal violence, we work proactively with local partners to understand which false claims may directly contribute to a risk of imminent physical harm. We then work to identify and remove content making those claims on our platform. For example, in consultation with local experts, we may remove out-of-context media falsely claiming to depict acts of violence, victims or perpetrators of violence, weapons, or military hardware.
II. Harmful Health Misinformation
We consult with leading health organizations to identify health misinformation likely to directly contribute to imminent harm to public health and safety. The harmful health misinformation that we remove includes the following:
  • Misinformation about vaccines. We remove misinformation primarily about vaccines when public health authorities conclude that the information is false and likely to directly contribute to imminent vaccine refusals. They include:
    • Vaccines cause autism (Ex: “Increased vaccinations are why so many kids have autism these days.”)
    • Vaccines cause Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (Ex: “Don’t you know vaccines cause SIDS?”
    • Vaccines cause the disease against which they are meant to protect, or cause the person receiving the vaccine to be more likely to get the disease (Ex: “Taking a vaccine actually makes you more likely to get the disease since there’s a strain of the disease inside. Beware!”)
    • Vaccines or their ingredients are deadly, toxic, poisonous, harmful, or dangerous (Ex: “Sure, you can take vaccines, if you don’t mind putting poison in your body.”)
    • Natural immunity is safer than vaccine-acquired immunity (Ex: “It’s safest to just get the disease rather than the vaccine.”)
    • It is dangerous to get several vaccines in a short period of time, even if that timing is medically recommended (Ex: “Never take more than one vaccine at the same time, that is dangerous - I don’t care what your doctor tells you!”)
    • Vaccines are not effective at preventing the disease against which they purport to protect. However, for the COVID-19, flu, and malaria vaccines, we do not remove claims that those vaccines are not effective in preventing someone from contracting those viruses. (Ex’s: Remove – “The polio vaccine doesn’t do anything to stop you from getting the disease”; Remove – “Vaccines actually don’t do anything to stop you from getting diseases”; Allow – “The vaccine doesn’t stop you from getting COVID-19, that’s why you still need to socially distance and wear a mask when you’re around others.”)
    • Acquiring measles cannot cause death (requires additional information and/or context) (Ex: “Don’t worry about whether you get measles, it can’t be fatal.”)
    • Vitamin C is as effective as vaccines in preventing diseases for which vaccines exist.
  • Misinformation about health during public health emergencies. We remove misinformation during public health emergencies when public health authorities conclude that the information is false and likely to directly contribute to the risk of imminent physical harm, including by contributing to the risk of individuals getting or spreading a harmful disease or refusing an associated vaccine. We identify public health emergencies in partnership with global and local health authorities. This currently includes certain false claims related to COVID-19 in countries still experiencing a publicly announced state of emergency regarding the virus. Click here for a complete set of rules regarding what misinformation we do not allow regarding COVID-19 and vaccines.
  • Promoting or advocating for harmful miracle cures for health issues. These include treatments where the recommended application, in a health context, is likely to directly contribute to the risk of serious injury or death, and the treatment has no legitimate health use (ex: bleach, disinfectant, black salve, caustic soda).
III. Voter or Census Interference
In an effort to promote election and census integrity, we remove misinformation that is likely to directly contribute to a risk of interference with people’s ability to participate in those processes. This includes the following:
  • Misinformation about the dates, locations, times, and methods for voting, voter registration, or census participation.
  • Misinformation about who can vote, qualifications for voting, whether a vote will be counted, and what information or materials must be provided in order to vote.
  • Misinformation about whether a candidate is running or not.
  • Misinformation about who can participate in the census and what information or materials must be provided in order to participate.
  • Misinformation about government involvement in the census, including, where applicable, that an individual's census information will be shared with another (non-census) government agency.
  • Content falsely claiming that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is at a voting location.
  • Explicit false claims that people will be infected by COVID-19 (or another communicable disease) if they participate in the voting process.
We have additional policies intended to cover calls for violence, the promotion of illegal participation, and calls for coordinated interference in elections, which are represented in other sections of our Community Standards.
IV. Manipulated Media
Media can be edited in a variety of ways. In many cases, these changes are benign, such as content being cropped or shortened for artistic reasons or music being added. In other cases, the manipulation is not apparent and could mislead, particularly in the case of video content. We remove this content because it can go viral quickly and experts advise that false beliefs regarding manipulated media often cannot be corrected through further discourse.
We remove videos under this policy if specific criteria are met: (1) the video has been edited or synthesized, beyond adjustments for clarity or quality, in ways that are not apparent to an average person, and would likely mislead an average person to believe a subject of the video said words that they did not say; and (2) the video is the product of artificial intelligence or machine learning, including deep learning techniques (e.g., a technical deepfake), that merges, combines, replaces, and/or superimposes content onto a video, creating a video that appears authentic.
To provide transparency that in countries experiencing a heightened risk of societal violence, we identify and remove content making harmful misinformation claims.
Policy Rationale
Misinformation is different from other types of speech addressed in our Community Standards because there is no way to articulate a comprehensive list of what is prohibited. With graphic violence or hate speech, for instance, our policies specify the speech we prohibit, and even persons who disagree with those policies can follow them. With misinformation, however, we cannot provide such a line. The world is changing constantly, and what is true one minute may not be true the next minute. People also have different levels of information about the world around them, and may believe something is true when it is not. A policy that simply prohibits “misinformation” would not provide useful notice to the people who use our services and would be unenforceable, as we don’t have perfect access to information.
Instead, our policies articulate different categories of misinformation and try to provide clear guidance about how we treat that speech when we see it. For each category, our approach reflects our attempt to balance our values of expression, safety, dignity, authenticity, and privacy.
We remove misinformation where it is likely to directly contribute to the risk of imminent physical harm. We also remove content that is likely to directly contribute to interference with the functioning of political processes. In determining what constitutes misinformation in these categories, we partner with independent experts who possess knowledge and expertise to assess the truth of the content and whether it is likely to directly contribute to the risk of imminent harm. This includes, for instance, partnering with human rights organizations with a presence on the ground in a country to determine the truth of a rumor about civil conflict.
For all other misinformation, we focus on reducing its prevalence or creating an environment that fosters a productive dialogue. We know that people often use misinformation in harmless ways, such as to exaggerate a point (“This team has the worst record in the history of the sport!”) or in humor or satire (“My husband just won Husband of the Year.”) They also may share their experience through stories that contain inaccuracies. In some cases, people share deeply-held personal opinions that others consider false or share information that they believe to be true but others consider incomplete or misleading.
Recognizing how common such speech is, we focus on slowing the spread of hoaxes and viral misinformation, and directing users to authoritative information. As part of that effort, we partner with third-party fact checking organizations to review and rate the accuracy of the most viral content on our platforms (see here to learn more about how our fact-checking program works). We also provide resources to increase media and digital literacy so people can decide what to read, trust, and share themselves. We require people to disclose, using our AI-disclosure tool, whenever they post organic content with photorealistic video or realistic-sounding audio that was digitally created or altered, and we may apply penalties if they fail to do so. We may also add a label to certain digitally created or altered content that creates a particularly high risk of misleading people on a matter of public importance.
Finally, we prohibit content and behavior in other areas that often overlap with the spread of misinformation. For example, our Community Standards prohibit fake accounts, fraud, and coordinated inauthentic behavior.
As online and offline environments change and evolve, we will continue to evolve these policies. Accounts that repeatedly share the misinformation listed below may, in addition to having their content enforced on in accordance with this policy, receive decreased distribution, limitations on their ability to advertise, or be removed from our platforms. Additional information on what happens when Meta removes content can be found here.
Misinformation we remove:
We remove the following types of misinformation:
I. Physical Harm or Violence
We remove misinformation or unverifiable rumors that expert partners have determined are likely to directly contribute to a risk of imminent violence or physical harm to people. We define misinformation as content with a claim that is determined to be false by an authoritative third party. We define an unverifiable rumor as a claim whose source expert partners confirm is extremely hard or impossible to trace, for which authoritative sources are absent, where there is not enough specificity for the claim to be debunked, or where the claim is too incredulous or too irrational to be believed.
We know that sometimes misinformation that might appear benign could, in a specific context, contribute to a risk of offline harm, including threats of violence that could contribute to a heightened risk of death, serious injury, or other physical harm. We work with a global network of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), not-for-profit organizations, humanitarian organizations, and international organizations that have expertise in these local dynamics.
II. Harmful Health Misinformation
We consult with leading health organizations to identify health misinformation likely to directly contribute to imminent harm to public health and safety. The harmful health misinformation that we remove includes the following:
  • Misinformation about vaccines. We remove misinformation primarily about vaccines when public health authorities conclude that the information is false and likely to directly contribute to imminent vaccine refusals. They include:
    • Vaccines cause autism (Ex: “Increased vaccinations are why so many kids have autism these days.”)
    • Vaccines cause Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (Ex: “Don’t you know vaccines cause SIDS?”
    • Vaccines cause the disease against which they are meant to protect, or cause the person receiving the vaccine to be more likely to get the disease (Ex: “Taking a vaccine actually makes you more likely to get the disease since there’s a strain of the disease inside. Beware!”)
    • Vaccines or their ingredients are deadly, toxic, poisonous, harmful, or dangerous (Ex: “Sure, you can take vaccines, if you don’t mind putting poison in your body.”)
    • Natural immunity is safer than vaccine-acquired immunity (Ex: “It’s safest to just get the disease rather than the vaccine.”)
    • It is dangerous to get several vaccines in a short period of time, even if that timing is medically recommended (Ex: “Never take more than one vaccine at the same time, that is dangerous - I don’t care what your doctor tells you!”)
    • Vaccines are not effective at preventing the disease against which they purport to protect. However, for the COVID-19, flu, and malaria vaccines, we do not remove claims that those vaccines are not effective in preventing someone from contracting those viruses. (Ex’s: Remove – “The polio vaccine doesn’t do anything to stop you from getting the disease”; Remove – “Vaccines actually don’t do anything to stop you from getting diseases”; Allow – “The vaccine doesn’t stop you from getting COVID-19, that’s why you still need to socially distance and wear a mask when you’re around others.”)
    • Acquiring measles cannot cause death (requires additional information and/or context) (Ex: “Don’t worry about whether you get measles, it can’t be fatal.”)
    • Vitamin C is as effective as vaccines in preventing diseases for which vaccines exist.
  • Misinformation about health during public health emergencies. We remove misinformation during public health emergencies when public health authorities conclude that the information is false and likely to directly contribute to the risk of imminent physical harm, including by contributing to the risk of individuals getting or spreading a harmful disease or refusing an associated vaccine. We identify public health emergencies in partnership with global and local health authorities. This currently includes certain false claims related to COVID-19 in countries still experiencing a publicly announced state of emergency regarding the virus.This currently includes false claims related to COVID-19 that are verified by expert health authorities, about the existence or severity of the virus, how to cure or prevent it, how the virus is transmitted or who is immune, and false claims which discourage good health practices related to COVID-19 (such as getting tested, social distancing, wearing a face mask, and getting a vaccine for COVID-19).Click here for a complete set of rules regarding what misinformation we do not allow regarding COVID-19 and vaccines.
  • Promoting or advocating for harmful miracle cures for health issues. These include treatments where the recommended application, in a health context, is likely to directly contribute to the risk of serious injury or death, and the treatment has no legitimate health use (ex: bleach, disinfectant, black salve, caustic soda).
III. Voter or Census Interference
In an effort to promote election and census integrity, we remove misinformation that is likely to directly contribute to a risk of interference with people’s ability to participate in those processes. This includes the following:
  • Misinformation about the dates, locations, times, and methods for voting, voter registration, or census participation.
  • Misinformation about who can vote, qualifications for voting, whether a vote will be counted, and what information or materials must be provided in order to vote.
  • Misinformation about whether a candidate is running or not.
  • Misinformation about who can participate in the census and what information or materials must be provided in order to participate.
  • Misinformation about government involvement in the census, including, where applicable, that an individual's census information will be shared with another (non-census) government agency.
  • Content falsely claiming that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is at a voting location.
  • Explicit false claims that people will be infected by COVID-19 (or another communicable disease) if they participate in the voting process.
We have additional policies intended to cover calls for violence, the promotion of illegal participation, and calls for coordinated interference in elections, which are represented in other sections of our Community Standards.
IV. Manipulated Media
Media can be edited in a variety of ways. In many cases, these changes are benign, such as content being cropped or shortened for artistic reasons or music being added. In other cases, the manipulation is not apparent and could mislead, particularly in the case of video content. We remove this content because it can go viral quickly and experts advise that false beliefs regarding manipulated media often cannot be corrected through further discourse.
We remove videos under this policy if specific criteria are met: (1) the video has been edited or synthesized, beyond adjustments for clarity or quality, in ways that are not apparent to an average person, and would likely mislead an average person to believe a subject of the video said words that they did not say; and (2) the video is the product of artificial intelligence or machine learning, including deep learning techniques (e.g., a technical deepfake), that merges, combines, replaces, and/or superimposes content onto a video, creating a video that appears authentic.
صارف کے تجربات
اس حوالے سے چند مثالیں دیکھیں کہ Facebook پر موجود لوگوں کو اصولوں کا نفاذ کیسا نظر آتا ہے، جیسے کہ: آپ کے خیال میں جس چیز کو Facebook پر نہیں ہونا چاہیے اس کی رپورٹ کیسے کی جاتی ہے، یہ کیسے بتایا جاتا ہے کہ آپ نے ہماری کمیونٹی کے معیارات کی خلاف ورزی کی ہے اور کسی کنٹنٹ پر وارننگ سکرین دیکھنا کیسا لگتا ہے۔
نوٹ: ہم ہمیشہ بہتری کی طرف گامزن ہیں، لہذا آپ یہاں جو کچھ دیکھ رہے ہیں وہ اس سے تھوڑا پرانا ہو سکتا ہے جو ہم فی الحال استعمال کر رہے ہیں۔
صارف کا تجربہ
رپورٹ کرنا
صارف کا تجربہ
رپورٹ کے بعد ہونے والی بات چیت
صارف کا تجربہ
ہٹائے جانے کا تجربہ
صارف کا تجربہ
وارننگ سکرینز
نفاذ
ہماری پالیسیاں Facebook استعمال کرنے والے دنیا کے تمام صارفین کیلئے ایک ہی ہیں۔
جائزہ کار ٹیم
Facebook پر لوگوں کو محفوظ رکھنے کیلئے 15,000 سے زائد جائزہ لینے والوں کی ہماری عالمی ٹیم ہر روز کام کرتی ہے۔
سٹیک ہولڈر انگیجمنٹ
بیرونی ماہرین، اکیڈمکس، NGOs اور پالیسی ساز افراد Facebook کمیونٹی کے معیارات سے باخبر رکھنے میں مدد کرتے ہیں۔
غلط معلومات کے حوالے سے مدد حاصل کریں
اس بارے میں جانیں کہ اگر آپ کو Facebook پر کوئی ایسی چیز دکھائی دے جس سے ہماری کمیونٹی کے معیارات کی خلاف ورزی ہوتی ہو تو آپ کیا کر سکتے ہیں۔
ہمارے ہیلپ سنٹر پر جائیں