Facebook is rolling out an updated version of its Community Standards to let people know what is and isn't allowed to be posted on the social network.
Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg says the firm's policies themselves are not changing. Rather, Facebook is revising its Community Standards page to include clearer information about the types of content that are prohibited from Facebook, including posts about dangerous organizations, bullying, harassment, sexual violence, nudity, hate speech, and graphic content.
The move is part of Facebook's efforts to strike a delicate balance between promoting freedom of expression on one hand and preventing people from posting abusive content on the other hand. Zuckerberg says Facebook's policies are based on its goal of providing more voice to more people and helping them freely and safely express their ideas and opinions without the threat of censorship, self-imposed or otherwise. If one person unfairly limits the voice of other people posting abusive remarks about them on Facebook, Zuckerberg says it is better to block that person than allow him to restrict the freedom of others.
"We work to create a safe and respectful environment where you always feel comfortable being and expressing yourself," Zuckerberg says on his Facebook page. "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."
Cyber-bullying, or any content that intends to degrade, shame other people or encourage them to harm themselves, has always been not allowed on Facebook. So does Facebook expressly prohibit hate speech, or content that attacks people based on their race, religion, sexual identity, or disability. Facebook has also added a section on dangerous organizations, which include those that revolve around terrorist or organized criminal activity, and says that posts or pages that express support for these groups, condone their activities, or praise their leaders is banned.
On the less definite notion of nudity, where some images are seen as works of art and some as pornography, Facebook says it is restricting some forms of nudity mainly because of the age and cultural background of some of its audiences. Images displaying genitals and fully exposed buttocks as well as breasts with the nipples showing are not allowed, but Facebook says it will "always allow photos of women actively engaged in breastfeeding or showing breasts with post-mastectomy scarring." Paintings, sculptures, and other works and digital content intended for educational, satirical, and humorous purposes are also allowed.
Among the entities asking Facebook to remove individual posts are governments, which sometimes ask the social network to take down content that is allowed by its Community Standards but is considered illegal in a specific country. In conjunction with Facebook's new Community Standards, it also issued its latest transparency report covering the second half of 2014, which saw an 11 percent uptick in the number of takedown requests by governments from around the world. A huge chunk of the 35,051 requests were made by India and Turkey. None came from the U.S. government.
"We fight to protect our community from unnecessary or overreaching government intervention," says Zuckerberg. "Facebook is a new kind of service, so we often face regulations that have little precedent. We push back to make sure we only comply with government demands when they're lawful and necessary."
Other people have argued that Facebook should not honor government requests at all, but Zuckerberg says that would mean blocking the service from the entire country, which is not good for business aka Facebook's "mission to connect the world." The Facebook chief says it is already blocked in some countries and being blocked in a few more will not largely affect Facebook.
"The people it would hurt are the people in those countries," he says. "Those are people who need a voice. Our responsibility is to give them as much of a voice as we possibly can."
Photo: Robert Scoble | Flickr
