A recently leaked document has revealed Facebook’s bizarre policy on censorship: It seems images of nudity are considered to be offensive by the team yet when it comes to posting pictures of blood and gore, users needn’t worry.
A former disgruntled employee who was paid a mere $1 an hour by oDesk – a third-party content-moderation firm used by Facebook — decided to leak Facebook’s secret rulebook recently to get his own back on the company. The worker, who used to filter out offensive content on Facebook, revealed astonishing details about the website’s censorship policies. He claimed staff were told to delete all images of sexual activity, even simulated activity where there was nothing explicit on show, yet “deep wounds”, “excessive blood” and “crushed heads” were all allowed to stay up on the site — “as long as no insides are showing”.
If that wasn’t peculiar enough, then consider the site’s policy on racial comments; the leaked document states that Facebook will not condone “slurs or racial comments of any kind”, and that any such comments should be deleted as soon as possible. However, it adds that these comments should be allowed to stay online if they are made in a humorous or ironic way.
These bizarre guidelines run throughout the Facebook rulebook for oDesk employees. For example, employees are advised that images of “urine, faeces, vomit, semen and ear wax” are banned, but images of “snot” are allowed, as are “cartoon faeces, urine and spit”.
Consider it a helpful guideline for those of you who have a propensity to post indecent pictures of yourself or others on Facebook and of course, those who are not all that fond of regular ear-cleaning sessions, should also beware.
Check-out Facebook’s Abuse Standard’s Violations on the Daily Mail
