Facebook wants to make clear what it allows and bars on the social network.
The social media company has released a more reader-friendly version of its rules on nudity, bullying, hate speech and more.
With about 1.4 billion people using Facebook, the social network sometimes comes under fire for what it takes down from its website.
That has reportedly included a photo of a famous French painting of a woman’s vagina, Facebook accounts of drag queens and Native Americans for not using their real names and images of the prophet Muhammad in Turkey.
“While our policies and standards themselves are not changing, we have heard from people that it would be helpful to provide more clarity and examples, so we are doing so with today’s update,” wrote Monika Bickert, Facebook’s head of global policy management and Chris Sonderby, the company’s deputy general counsel in a post about the topic.
The rules aren’t always simple to explain and the social network relies on users to report violations.
For example, Facebook’s rules on nudity state that it removes photographs of people displaying genitals or focusing on fully exposed buttocks. They restrict some images of female breasts, but the social network allows women to post photos of them breastfeeding or with post-mastectomy scarring.
The company also responds to requests from government to remove content. From July to December 2014, Facebook restricted 9,707 pieces of content for violating local laws, an increase of 11 percent compared to the previous six-month period, according to its most recent Government Requests report.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a lengthy post yesterday night that the social network wants to create a safe and respectful environment where people feel comfortable being and expressing themselves.
“That’s why we have Community Standards to establish basic rules across our community, including that threats of violence and bullying will be taken down. These are examples where one person exercising their voice may unfairly limit the voices of many others. Therefore, in the spirit of giving the most voice to the most people, we choose not to permit this content.” Zuckerberg wrote in the post.
Photo Credit: Karen Bleierkaren Bleier/AFP/Getty Images
