Facebook Publishes Clearer Guidelines On Who Can Post What And Who Gets Banned

One of the biggest problems with social media or just general internet policies is how vague they can be. On Tuesday, Facebook tried to remedy this issue by publishing a set of guidelines that make it clear what can get users banned and who are the kind of people allowed to post on its platform. It’s the most specific set of rules provided by an online giant yet.

“Our mission is all about embracing diverse views. We err on the side of allowing content, even when some find it objectionable, unless removing that content can prevent a specific harm,” the guidelines read. “Moreover, at times we will allow content that might otherwise violate our standards if we feel that it is newsworthy, significant, or important to the public interest. We do this only after weighing the public interest value of the content against the risk of real-world harm.”

As CNBC notes, the new rules break the types of contents it looks into for the matter how objectionable they are down to six categories. These are "Violence and Criminal Behavior," "Objectionable Content," "Safety," "Respecting Intellectual Property," "Integrity and Authenticity,” and "Content-Related Requests."

Facebook will essentially be taking a closer look at posts to which of them are promoting actual, real-world violence against anyone and which are simply casual statements with objectionable crudeness. The social network doesn’t want to jump the gun on posts that are not necessarily advocating for real harm.

Among the list of contents and posts that Facebook will block include terrorist activity, organized hate, mass or serial murder, human trafficking, organized violence or criminal activity, and regulated goods. There are also other specific banned items listed under the rest of the categories, including contents containing child nudity under Safety, hate speech under Objectionable Content, and so on.