UPDATED 09:30 EDT / MARCH 17 2015

Things Facebook says “shouldn’t be shared on Facebook” – violence, nudity and copyrights

facebook like user finger clickWhen your user base consists of roughly one-sixth of the world’s population, it is hard to make a content policy that can cover everyone, but Facebook is sure trying. The social media giant recently updated its Community Standards to clearly lay out exactly what you can and cannot post on Facebook, and the rules showcase exactly how hard it is to please all of the people all of the time.

“Every day, people around the world share billions of things on Facebook that add value to our lives,” Head of Global Product Policy Monika Bickert and Vice President of Global Operations Justin Osofsky wrote in a statement. “But sometimes people share content that can be abusive or harmful to the rest of the community. That’s why we created Community Standards – to explain what kinds of things shouldn’t be shared on Facebook.”

The updated standards outline some of the hot button issues faced by the social network, such as nudity. According to the new policy, nudity in general is discouraged “because some audiences within our global community may be sensitive to this type of content.” The rule explicitly allows images of breastfeeding and mastectomy scars, as well as pictures of paintings, sculptures and other artwork that contain nudity.

That is, of course, provided that the images of that artwork are not covered by copyright. A very brief statement at the end of the community standards covers copyrighted material, but it is written as “protecting your intellectual property” (emphasis mine). However, the statement tells users, “We ask that you respect copyrights, trademarks and other legal rights.” The section then links to Facebook’s slightly more verbose policy on Intellectual Property.

Another controversial topic covered by the updated community standards is the issue of online hate speech, which Facebook defines as “content that directly attacks people” based on traits such as race, gender, religion and sexual orientation. This section is important both for cyber bullying, which is an increasing problem in younger generations, as well as inflammatory speech from groups such as ISIS.

Facebook, Twitter, Inc. and other social media platforms have faced a tough challenge over the last year with shutting down accounts linked to ISIS, and while the updated policies might give Facebook a rule to point to when they take down a page, it likely will not make its job any easier.

photo credit: leeander via photopin cc

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