Facebook Bans Bare Butts, Bullying; Still OK With Graphic Violence

(RTTNews) - Facebook Inc. (FB) has announced its updated community standards and provided more details on what is and is not allowed on the social networking site.

The company, which has 1.3 billion users, has clarified its policies related to offensive content on issues such as sexual violence and exploitation, nudity, hate speech, as well as bullying and harassment.

In a blog post on Sunday, Monika Bickert, Facebook's head of global policy management, and Chris Sonderby, the company's deputy general counsel, said, that while Facebook's policies and standards themselves are not changing, the company has heard from people that it would be helpful to provide more clarity and examples.

Bickert and Sonderby noted that it is a challenge to maintain one set of standards that meets the needs of a diverse global community.

Facebook said that while it has always banned hate speech, it regularly talks to governments, community members, academics and other experts from around the globe to ensure that it is in the best position possible to recognize and remove such speech from its community.

However, the company clarified that while people should be allowed to share examples of others' hate speech to raise awareness of the issue, they must make their intentions known clearly.

Facebook also said it will restrict the display of nudity. The company will remove "photographs of people displaying genitals or focusing in on fully exposed buttocks," and explicit images of sexual intercourse.

On violence and graphic content, Facebook said it will remove graphic images when they are shared for sadistic pleasure, or to celebrate or glorify violence.

However, the company noted that when people share this type of content, they are condemning it or raising awareness about it. Facebook will ask people who share such content to warn their audience about what they are about to see if it includes graphic violence.

Facebook also said it will not tolerate bullying or harassment. The company will remove content that appears to purposefully target private individuals with the intention of degrading or shaming them.

Facebook said that at times, it may have to remove or restrict access to content if it violates a law in a particular country, even if it does not violate the company's community standards. But the company will challenge government requests that appear to be unreasonable or overbroad.

If the content is illegal in one country, Facebook may restrict access to the content in the country where it is illegal, but may not necessarily remove it from Facebook entirely.

Facebook continued to see an increase in government requests for data and content restrictions. The amount of content restricted for violating local law increased by 11 percent over the previous half, to 9,707 items.

Social media sites are under pressure to crackdown on abuse and harassment and thus, moderate content on their sites.

Last week, Twitter Inc. (TWTR) said it will ban the posting of revenge porn and non-consensual nude photos by users.

In February, Reddit also changed its privacy policies and notified users that it would begin the process of processing and taking down offending content from the site's more than 9,000 communities.