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Facebook: Latest Update to Content Guidelines September 2017

CATEGORY: In The Know, News, Social Media | DATE: September 19, 2017

Facebook wouldn’t be Facebook without another update to its rules and regulations, am I right or am I right?

Facebook has been researching many options to how it wants to handle the content it allows to be promoted over the past year…with many changes to its guidelines made along the way. The platform prides itself on being a hub of useful information where users feel like they have a safe place to share their voice and aren’t being constantly solicited by advertisers and they have recently announced a new list of ineligible content for advertisers.

So what exactly has changed? Here’s the full list of content that will no longer be available for monetization straight from the source:

Misappropriation of Children’s Characters – Content that depicts family entertainment characters engaging in violent, sexualized, or otherwise inappropriate behavior, including videos positioned in a comedic or satirical manner. For example, situations where characters sustain serious personal injury, are involved in vile or shocking acts, or involved in behavior such as smoking or drinking.

Tragedy & Conflict – Content that focuses on real world tragedies, including but not limited to depictions of death, casualties, physical injuries, even if the intention is to promote awareness or education. For example, situations like natural disasters, crime, self-harm, medical conditions and terminal illnesses.

Debated Social Issues – Content that is incendiary, inflammatory, demeaning or disparages people, groups, or causes is not eligible for ads. Content that features or promotes attacks on people or groups is generally not eligible for ads, even if in the context of news or awareness purposes.

Violent Content – Content that is depicting threats or acts of violence against people or animals, where this is the focal point and is not presented with additional context. Examples includes content featuring fights, gore, beatings of either animals or people, or excessively graphic violence in the course of video gameplay.

Adult Content – Content where the focal point is nudity or adult content, including depictions of people in explicit or suggestive positions, or activities that are overly suggestive or sexually provocative.

Prohibited Activity – Content that depicts, constitutes, facilitates, or promotes the sale or use of illegal or illicit products, services or activities. Examples include content that features coordinated criminal activity, drug use, or vandalism.

Explicit Content – Content that depicts overly graphic images, blood, open wounds, bodily fluids, surgeries, medical procedures, or gore that is intended to shock or scare.

Drugs or Alcohol Use – Content depicting or promoting the excessive consumption of alcohol, smoking, or drug use

Inappropriate Language – Content should not contain excessive use of derogatory language, including language intended to offend or insult particular groups of people.

All of the content listed does seem logical in a sense that they could easily be taken as offensive, but where it could get a bit controversial is the content that essentially will have to come down to a single call of reasoning on what someone at Facebook considers appropriate or not.

What do you guys think? Share your thoughts in the comments