Exposed, Facebook rules that allow death threats and videos of self-harm

FACEBOOK is allowing users to share death threats, videos of self-harm and pictures of animal torture, it emerged yesterday.

Leaked company documents reveal staff moderating the social media website are told not to delete such content.

Secret slides detailing ‘permissible’ posts also suggest videos of violent deaths do not always need to be deleted because they can help create awareness of issues such as mental illness.

And moderators do not have to censor death threats as long as they are regarded as generic or ‘not credible’.

Among the examples allowed are: ‘ **** off and die’, ‘little girl needs to keep to herself before daddy breaks her face’ and ‘I hope someone kills you’.

Yesterday campaigners said more needed to be done to ensure children were protected from the disturbing content.

Facebook has an age restriction of 13 but many younger children lie on their profiles so that they can keep up with their friends.

Margaret Morrissey, of Parents Outloud, said: ‘The effect on children of this content will be disastrous. I know there are age restrictions but these are irrelevant – kids always find a way round them.

‘I have no doubt that children are inclined to copy whatever they see online. And allowing people to post violent threats will only encourage cyber bullying. The next government needs to crack down on web companies which allow such content.

‘It may be that imposing fines is the only way to stop it.’

The slides, obtained by the Guardian, say photos of non-sexual physical abuse do not have to be deleted or ‘actioned’ unless there is a sadistic or celebratory element. The rule follows the logic that leaving it on the website increases the chance of the victim being rescued. Photos of animal abuse and torture can also be shared. Meanwhile all ‘handmade’ art showing nudity and sexual activity is allowed – although digitally made art showing sexual activity is not.

Facebook said it protected minors by hiding upsetting content and gave adults a ‘choice’ by labelling it as ‘disturbing’.

The rules, which affect 2billion users, are contained in more than 100 internal training manuals, spreadsheets and flowcharts seen by the newspaper.

Moderators say they are overwhelmed by the volume of work, and often have ‘just ten seconds’ to make a decision. One source told the newspaper: ‘Facebook cannot keep control of its content. It has grown too big, too quickly.’

The manuals also say videos of abortions are allowed as long as there is no nudity.

And Facebook will allow users to livestream attempts to self-harm because it ‘doesn’t want to censor or punish people in distress’.

In one of the leaked documents, Facebook justifies its rules, saying users ‘commonly express disdain or disagreement by threatening or calling for violence in generally facetious and unserious ways’.

Last night Monika Bickert, Facebook’s head of global policy management, told the Daily Mail: ‘Keeping people on Facebook safe is the most important thing we do. In addition to investing in more people, we’re also building better tools to keep our community safe. We’re going to make it simpler to report problems to us, faster for our reviewers to determine which posts violate our standards and easier for them to contact law enforcement if someone needs help.’

Former Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said yesterday: ‘On child abuse they are still getting this very wrong. It is only likely to be in exceptional circumstances that continued sharing of child abuse is essential to the identifying and rescuing of a child.’

‘Effect on children will be disastrous’ ‘They are getting this very wrong’