Facebook (Photo : Reuters)
Social networking site Facebook has updated its policy on community standards in order to offer more clarity on the content it allows or disallows on its site, The Guardian reported.
The company said in a blog post that they are not changing their policies, but are providing more clarity. The social network wants to fulfill people's request for more clarity. The updated guidelines cover areas such as sexual violence, criminal activity, violence, dangerous organizations, bullying, nudity, hate speech and harassment.
The online social networking service said that it would not allow pictures of people displaying genitals and explicit images of sexual intercourse on its site. It further said that it will not allow content that expresses support for groups engaged in criminal or hateful behavior.
Facebook will allow open discussion of people and celebrities featured in the news. The company warns, however, that it will not tolerate credible threats to public figures and hate speech aimed at them.
The social network may remove or restrict access to content that infringes the law in a specific country. However, Facebook said that it will challenge unreasonable government requests for take downs.
People who share content containing others' hate speech to increase awareness about that hate speech need to clearly indicate their purpose, the company added. This will make it clear why they shared that content.
Reddit and Twitter have also changed their policies to restrict content such as revenge porn and stolen nude pictures on their sites, according to PC World. Last week, the social media network Twitter changed its policies to ban the posting of intimate videos and pictures taken without a subject's consent. Likewise, the social website Reddit prohibited the posting of revenge porn and naked pictures on its site.
