Facebook Bans Breasts & Butt Pics, Revenge Porn & Hate Speech

From now on naked butts, women’s nipples, sexually explicit content, hate speech, and terrorism-related posts will not be allowed on Facebook. The social networking website has released its new Community Standards to address confusion about why some takedown requests were rejected, what will and will not be posted, and why. However, Facebook users will still have to report violations of the updated guidelines; the company will not automatically scan and remove potentially offensive content.

“These standards are designed to create an environment where people feel motivated and empowered to treat each other with empathy and respect. In particular, we’ve provided more guidance on policies related to self-injury, dangerous organizations, bullying and harassment, criminal activity, sexual violence and exploitation, nudity, hate speech, and violence and graphic content. While some of this guidance is new, it is consistent with how we’ve applied our standards in the past,” Monika Bickert, Facebook’s head of global policy management, and Chris Sonderby, Facebook’s deputy general counsel, said.

Facebook will now remove photographs of people displaying genitals or fully exposed buttocks, and restrict some images of female breasts if they include nipples, but will always allow photos of women actively engaged in breastfeeding or showing breasts with post-mastectomy scarring. The company has also banned sexually explicit content posted without the user’s permission (revenge porn).

The company made it clear that not only will it ban terrorist organisations or their members within the Facebook community, it also won’t permit praise or support for terror groups or their acts or their leaders, which wasn’t something that was detailed before.

It further clarified how it will handle posts that violate a country’s laws, even if they don’t violate the Facebook Community Standards.

“Questions about free expression and how governments regulate it are some of the most difficult and important issues we face. In an ideal world, we would all feel empowered to express everything we want, freely and safely. In reality, there are many obstacles in the way. Every country, including the United States, has laws preventing you from sharing certain things to protect public safety and intellectual property,” ,” Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a post.

“[I]f a country requests that we remove content because it is illegal in that country, we will not necessarily remove it from Facebook entirely, but may restrict access to it in the country where it is illegal,” Bickert and Sonderby wrote, citing hate speech as an example.

“We will also continue to push governments around the world to reform their surveillance practices in a way that maintains the safety and security of their people while ensuring their rights and freedoms are protected,” Bickert and Sonderby added.