Dangerous organisations and individuals

In an effort to prevent and disrupt real-world harm, we do not allow organisations or individuals that proclaim a violent mission or are engaged in violence to have a presence on our platforms. We assess these entities based on their behaviour both online and offline – most significantly, their ties to violence. Under this policy, we designate individuals, organisations and networks of people. These designations are divided into two tiers that indicate the level of content enforcement, with Tier 1 resulting in the most extensive enforcement because we believe that these entities have the most direct ties to offline harm.

Tier 1 focuses on entities that engage in serious offline harm – including organising or advocating for violence against civilians, repeatedly dehumanising or advocating for harm against people based on protected characteristics, or engaging in systematic criminal operations. Tier 1 includes hate organisations, criminal organisations, including those designated by the United States government as specially designated narcotics trafficking kingpins (SDNTKs), and terrorist organisations, including entities and individuals designated by the United States government as foreign terrorist organisations (FTOs) or specially designated global terrorists (SDGTs). We remove Glorification, Support and Representation of Tier 1 entities, their leaders, founders or prominent members, as well as unclear references to them.

In addition, we do not allow content that glorifies, supports or represents events that Meta designates as violating violent events – including terrorist attacks, hate events, multiple-victim violence or attempted multiple-victim violence, serial murders or hate crimes. Nor do we allow (1) Glorification, Support or Representation of the perpetrator(s) of such attacks; (2) perpetrator-generated content relating to such attacks; or (3) third-party imagery depicting the moment of such attacks on visible victims. We also remove content that Glorifies, Supports or Represents ideologies that promote hate, such as nazism and white supremacy. We remove unclear references to these designated events or ideologies.

Tier 2 includes Violent Non-State Actors that engage in violence against state or military actors in an armed conflict but do not intentionally target civilians. It also includes Violence-Inducing Entities that are engaged in preparing or advocating for future violence but have not necessarily engaged in violence to date. These are also entities that may repeatedly engage in violations of our Hate Speech or Dangerous Organisations and Individuals policies on or off the platform. We remove glorification, material support and representation of these entities or of their leaders, founders or prominent members.

We recognise that users may share content that includes references to designated dangerous organisations and individuals in the context of social and political discourse. This includes content reporting on, neutrally discussing or condemning dangerous organisations and individuals or their activities.

News reporting includes information that is shared to raise awareness about local and global events in which designated dangerous organisations and individuals are involved.

• E.g. "Breaking news: Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack in Somalia"
• E.g. "Timeline and expert analysis: How the shooting at the Buffalo Supermarket unfolded and what did the perpetrator say in court"

Neutral discussion includes factual statements, commentary, questions and other information that do not express positive judgement around the designated dangerous organisation or individual and their behaviour.

• E.g. "Al Qaeda represents less threat than ISIS given the lack of leadership and finance"
• E.g. "Anders Breivik is one example of how complex the radicalisation process can be"

Condemnation includes disapproval, disgust, rejection, criticism, mockery and other negative expressions about a designated dangerous organisation or individual and their behaviour.

• E.g. "I feel disgusted by the crime of Salvador Ramos. The judge's words resonated so much to me. He should get no mercy by the court"
• E.g. "Hitler's crimes shall never be forgotten. These were some of the darkest moments in history"

Our policies are designed to allow room for these types of discussions while simultaneously limiting risks of potential offline harm. We thus require people to clearly indicate their intent when creating or sharing such content. If a user's intention is ambiguous or unclear, we default to removing content.

In line with international human rights law, our policies allow discussions about the human rights of designated individuals or members of designated dangerous entities, unless the content includes other glorification, support or representation of designated entities or other policy violations, such as incitement to violence.

Please see our Corporate Human Rights Policy for more information about our commitment to internationally recognised human rights.

We remove Glorification, Support and Representation of various dangerous organisations and individuals. These concepts apply to the organisations themselves, their activities and their members. These concepts do not proscribe peaceful advocacy for particular political outcomes.

Glorification, defined as any of the below:

• Legitimising or defending the violent or hateful acts of a designated entity by claiming that those acts have a moral, political, logical or other justification that makes them acceptable or reasonable.
  • E.g. "Hitler did nothing wrong."
• Characterising or celebrating the violence or hate of a designated entity as an achievement or accomplishment;
  • E.g. "Hizbul Mujahideen is winning the war for a free and independent Kashmir"
• An aspirational statement of membership or statement that you would like to be a designated entity or the perpetrator of a violating violent event.
  • E.g. "I wish I could join ISIS and be part of the Khilafah"

We remove glorification of Tier 1 and Tier 2 entities, as well as designated events.

For Tier 1 and designated events, we may also remove unclear or contextless references if the user's intent was not clearly indicated. This includes unclear humour, captionless or positive references that do not glorify the designated entity's violence or hate.

Support, defined as any of the below:

• Material Support

• Any act which improves the financial status of a designated entity – including funnelling money towards or away from a designated entity;
  • E.g. "Donate to the KKK!"
• Any act which provides material aid to a designated entity or event;
  • E.g. "If you want to send care packages to the Sinaloa Cartel, use this address:"
• Recruiting on behalf of a designated entity or event;
  • E.g. "If you want to fight for the Caliphate, DM me"

• Other support

• Channelling information or resources, including official communications, on behalf of a designated entity or event

• E.g. Directly quoting a designated entity without caption that condemns, neutrally discusses or is a part of news reporting.

• Putting out a call to action on behalf of a designated entity or event;

• E.g. "Contact the Atomwaffen Division – (XXX) XXX-XXXX"

We remove all Support of Tier 1 and Material Support of Tier 2.

Representation, defined as any of the below:

• Stating that you are a member of a designated entity, or are a designated entity;
  • E.g. "I am a grand dragon of the KKK."
• Creating a Page, profile, event, group or other Facebook entity that is or purports to be owned by a designated entity or run on their behalf, or is or purports to be a designated event.
  • E.g. A Page named "American Nazi Party".

We remove Representation of Tier 1 and 2 Designated Organisations and designated events.

Tier 1: Terrorism, organised hate, large-scale criminal activity, attempted multiple-victim violence, multiple victim violence, serial murders and violating violent events

We do not allow individuals or organisations involved in organised crime, including those designated by the United States government as specially designated narcotics trafficking kingpins (SDNTKs), hate, or terrorism, including entities designated by the United States government as Foreign Terrorist Organisations (FTOs) or Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs), to have a presence on the platform. We also don't allow other people to represent these entities. We do not allow leaders or prominent members of these organisations to have a presence on the platform, symbols that represent them to be used on the platform, or content that glorifies them or their acts, including unclear references to them. In addition, we remove any support for these individuals and organisations.

We do not allow content that glorifies, supports or represents events that Meta designates as terrorist attacks, hate events, multiple-victim violence or attempted multiple-victim violence, serial murders, hate crimes or violating violent events. Nor do we allow (1) content that glorifies, supports or represents the perpetrator(s) of such attacks; (2) perpetrator-generated content relating to such attacks; or (3) third-party imagery depicting the moment of such attacks on visible victims.

We also do not allow Glorification, Support or Representation of designated hateful ideologies, as well as unclear references to them.

Terrorist organisations and individuals, defined as a non-state actor that:

• Engages in, advocates or lends substantial support to purposive and planned acts of violence,
• Which causes or attempts to cause death, injury or serious harm to civilians, or any other person not taking direct part in the hostilities in a situation of armed conflict, and/or significant damage to property linked to death, serious injury or serious harm to civilians
• With the intent to coerce, intimidate and/or influence a civilian population, government or international organisation
• In order to achieve a political, religious or ideological aim.

Hate entity – defined as an organisation or individual that spreads and encourages hate against others based on their protected characteristics. The entity's activities are characterised by at least some of the following behaviours:

• Violence, threatening rhetoric or dangerous forms of harassment targeting people based on their protected characteristics;
• Repeated use of hate speech;
• Representation of hate ideologies or other designated hate entities, and/or
• Glorification or Support of other designated Hate Entities or Hate Ideologies.

Criminal organisations, defined as an association of three or more people that:

• is united under a name, colour(s), hand gesture(s) or recognised indicia; and
• has engaged in or threatens to engage in criminal activity such as homicide, drug trafficking or kidnapping.

Multiple-victim violence and serial murders

• We consider an event to be multiple-victim violence or attempted multiple-victim violence if it results in three or more casualties in one incident, defined as deaths or serious injuries. Any individual who has committed such an attack is considered to be a perpetrator or an attempted perpetrator of multiple-victim violence.
• We consider any individual who has committed two or more murders over multiple incidents or locations a serial murderer.

Hateful ideologies

• While our designations of organisations and individuals focus on behaviour, we also recognise that there are certain ideologies and beliefs that are inherently tied to violence and attempts to organise people around calls for violence or exclusion of others based on their protected characteristics. In these cases, we designate the ideology itself and remove content that supports this ideology from our platform. These ideologies include:
  • Nazism
  • White supremacy
  • White nationalism
  • White separatism
• We remove explicit Glorification, Support and Representation of these ideologies, and remove individuals and organisations that ascribe to one or more of these hateful ideologies.

Tier 2: Violent Non-State Actors and Violence-Inducing Entities

Organisations and individuals designated by Meta as Violent Non-state Actors or Violence-Inducing Entities are not allowed to have a presence on our platforms or have a presence maintained by others on their behalf. As these communities are actively engaged in violence against state or military actors in armed conflicts (Violent Non-State Actors) or are preparing, advocating for or creating conditions for future violence (Violence-Inducing Entities), material support of these entities is not allowed. We will also remove glorification of these entities.

Violent non-state actors, defined as any non-state actor that:

• Engages in a pattern of purposive and planned acts of high-severity violence targeting government, military or other armed groups taking direct part in the hostilities in a situation of armed conflict, and does not intentionally and explicitly target civilians with high-severity violence; AND/OR
• Deprives communities of access to critical infrastructure or natural resources; AND/OR
• Engages in a pattern of attacks intended to bring significant damage to infrastructure that is not linked to death, serious injury or serious harm to civilians.

Violence-Inducing Entities are defined as follows:

A Violence-Inducing Entity (General) is a non-state actor that:

• Uses weapons as a part of their training, communication or presence; and are structured or operate as unofficial military or security forces; AND

• Coordinates in preparation for inter-community violence or civil war; OR
• Advocates for violence against government officials or violent disruptions of civic events; OR
• Engages in theft, vandalism, burglary or other damage to property; OR
• Engages in mid-severity violence at civic events; OR
• Promotes bringing weapons to a location when the stated intent is to intimidate people amid a protest

A Violence-Inducing Conspiracy Network is a non-state actor that:

• Is identified by a name, mission statement, symbol or shared lexicon; AND
• Promotes unfounded theories that attempts to explain the ultimate causes of significant social and political problems, events and circumstances with claims of secret plots by two or more powerful actors; AND
• Has explicitly advocated for or has been directly linked to a pattern of offline physical harm by adherents motivated by the desire to draw attention to or redress the supposed harms identified in the unfounded theories promoted by the network.

A Hate Banned Entity is a non-state actor that:

• Engages in repeated hateful conduct or rhetoric, but does not rise to the level of a Tier 1 entity because they have not engaged in or explicitly advocated for violence, or because they lack sufficient connections to previously designated organisations or figures.

• In certain cases, we will allow content that may otherwise violate the Community Standards when it is determined that the content is satirical. Content will only be allowed if the violating elements of the content are being satirised or attributed to something or someone else in order to mock or criticise them.