March 16th 2015
Facebook has defined in detail it definitions of offensive content. A revision of the social network's community standards states what it means by 'offensive' regarding such issues as nudity, bullying and hate speech, in order to meet users's requests for greater clarity.
The standards include details of the exact nature of the content that would be removed under its prohibition against nudity, stating “photographs of people displaying genitals or focusing in on fully exposed buttocks” and explicit sexual intercourse images as examples. Facebook will also remove content that targets people “with the intention of degrading or shaming them", such as pages that identify and shame private individuals, modifying photos to degrade and the repeated targeting of people with unwanted friend requests or messages.
In a blog post yesterday, Head of Global Policy Management Monica Bickert and Deputy General Counsel Chris Bickert said: “Today we are providing more detail and clarity on what is and is not allowed. For example, what exactly do we mean by nudity, or what do we mean by hate speech?”
With around 82% of its 1.4 billion active users located outside the United States and Canada, Facebook says it is restricting the display of nudity because some audiences could be sensitive to such content particularly because of their cultural background or age.
Twitter and Reddit have also recently changed their policies to prohibit content such as revenge porn and stolen nude photos.
Facebook has re-stated its insistence that users sign up using authentic identities, threatening to close down additional profiles, and those that impersonate other. Pets, games characters and other such favourite images are allowed, but through a page rather than a profile.
