The Atlantic

What You Can't Say on Facebook

A new document reveals the scope of Facebook’s power—and a new commitment to transparency about it.
Source: Jose Gomez / Reuters

After years of pleas from activists and users, Facebook publicly released a version of its Community Guidelines on Tuesday—thousands of words that attempt to describe what you can’t say on the service.

Or, more precisely, the document spells out what Facebook will take down, if it is alerted by users. The text lays out Facebook’s first principles—“safety,” “voice,” and “equity”—and demonstrates how hard those are to turn into operational dictums.

The big platforms all have a document like

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