Policy details

Change log

CHANGE LOG

Change log

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Policy Rationale
When someone passes away, Facebook friends and family can request that we memorializethe Facebook account. Once memorialized, the word "Remembering" appears above the name on the person's profile so that the account is now a memorial site. Memorializing accounts helps create a space for remembering loved ones and protects against attempted logins and fraudulent activity. To respect the choices someone made while alive, we aim to preserve their account without changes after they pass away.

We have also made it possible for people to identify a legacy contact to look after their Facebook account after they pass away. To support the bereaved, in some instances, we may remove or change certain content when the legacy contact or family members request it.

For victims of murder and suicide we will remove the following content if it appears on the deceased’s profile photo, cover photo, or among recent timeline posts when requested by a legacy contact or family member of the deceased:

  • Content related to the deceased's death
  • Praise or support for the death, disease, or harm of the deceased
  • Visual depiction of the object used in the deceased’s death.
  • Imagery of the convicted or alleged murderer of the deceased.
  • Relationship status or friend status of the convicted or alleged murderer of the deceased

For the following Community Standards, we require additional information and/or context to make the following changes when requested by the legacy contact or an authorized representative of the deceased:

  • Remove violating comments on a memorialized profile, which would typically require the individual to self report so that we know that they are unwanted.
  • Change the deceased's individual's privacy settings from public to friends-only when there is harmful content on the profile
  • Change the name on the profile if it violates our Community Standards, in accordance with our Authentic Name policy
  • Add friends or followers to the profile if they were removed following the deceased’s passing

User experiences

See some examples of what enforcement looks like for people on Facebook, such as: what it looks like to report something you don’t think should be on Facebook, to be told you’ve violated our Community Standards and to see a warning screen over certain content.

Note: We’re always improving, so what you see here may be slightly outdated compared to what we currently use.

Reporting
1
Universal entry point

We have an option to report, whether it's on a post, comment, story, message, profile or something else.

2
Get started

We help people report things that they don’t think should be on our platform.

3
Select a problem

We ask people to tell us more about what’s wrong. This helps us send the report to the right place.

4
Check your report

Make sure the details are correct before you click Submit. It’s important that the problem selected truly reflects what was posted.

5
Report submitted

After these steps, we submit the report. We also lay out what people should expect next.

6
More options

We remove things if they go against our Community Standards, but you can also Unfollow, Block or Unfriend to avoid seeing posts in future.

Post-report communication
1
Update via notifications

After we’ve reviewed the report, we’ll send the reporting user a notification.

2
More detail in the Support Inbox

We’ll share more details about our review decision in the Support Inbox. We’ll notify people that this information is there and send them a link to it.

3
Appeal option

If people think we got the decision wrong, they can request another review.

4
Post-appeal communication

We’ll send a final response after we’ve re-reviewed the content, again to the Support Inbox.

Takedown experience
1
Immediate notification

When someone posts something that doesn't follow our rules, we’ll tell them.

2
Additional context

We’ll also address common misperceptions and explain why we made the decision to enforce.

3
Policy Explanation

We’ll give people easy-to-understand explanations about the relevant rule.

4
Option for review

If people disagree with the decision, they can ask for another review and provide more information.

5
Final decision

We set expectations about what will happen after the review has been submitted.

Warning screens
1
Warning screens in context

We cover certain content in News Feed and other surfaces, so people can choose whether to see it.

2
More information

In this example, we give more context on why we’ve covered the photo with more context from independent fact-checkers

Enforcement

We have the same policies around the world, for everyone on Facebook.

Review teams

Our global team of over 15,000 reviewers work every day to keep people on Facebook safe.

Stakeholder engagement

Outside experts, academics, NGOs and policymakers help inform the Facebook Community Standards.

Get help with memorialization

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