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6 things Facebook's community guidelines just revealed you can’t do

Do not post nudes — unless you’re photoshopping a “visible anus and/or fully nude close-ups of buttocks” onto a public figure.

You can’t compare someone to a “disease” on Facebook, according to the network’s newly released content guidelines. Don’t use words like “retarded” or “slutty” either, and definitely don’t call anyone “cheap,” or “stupid,” or an “idiot.”

Facebook has long evaded questions about when and why its moderators remove content from pages or groups, but the social media network just released 27 pages of its content moderation guidelines, a document used by its army of contracted moderators. The extremely detailed list touches on almost everything forbidden on Facebook, from instances of racism to references of sexual acts.

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Another big update revealed in the newly released guidelines is that users who feel their posts were wrongfully removed can request an appeal. Before Tuesday, there was only an appeal process for removed pages or profiles.

Facebook has always toed the line between serving as an open forum and keeping its users safe and free from hatred. But in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, where 87 million users’ data was harvested to target them with political ads, Facebook has become a little more open. CEO Mark Zuckerberg even recently testified before Congress for the first time ever.

Here’s what’s not allowed on Facebook, according to the guidelines:

No cannibalism, in any context

Users aren’t allowed to post photos of victims of cannibalism or discuss eating people, at all. But there’s one exception: if they’re being treated in a medical setting. Even if you have a fetish that involves any sort of cannibalistic activity, fantastical or not, don’t post about it. That’s expressly forbidden.

No nudity — minus a weird exception for public figures

Do not post nudes — unless you’re photoshopping a “visible anus and/or fully nude close-ups of buttocks” onto a public figure. That’s apparently allowed.

The rest of the bullying policies don’t apply to public figures, either. Unless posts include a credible threat against a public figure, they’re allowed.

Female nipples are only allowed in certain cases

Photos of women’s uncovered nipples are banned on Facebook — “except in the context of breastfeeding, birth-giving and after-birth moments, health (for example, post-mastectomy, breast cancer awareness, or gender confirmation surgery), or an act of protest.”

Posting about “crisis actors” is definitely not allowed

The “fake news” section of Facebook’s content guidelines seems deliberately vague. The network says it's working with academics to fix the problem but wants to continue to allow free and open discourse about all issues on its platform.

But there’s an exception, listed under the harassment section of the report: Contacting people or claiming that they’re “lying about being a victim of an event” is expressly forbidden.

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After several mass shootings in the last several years — most recently the Parkland school shooting — claims have circulated on Facebook and elsewhere that the victims weren’t actually victims but planted actors pretending to be suffering through the tragedy of a mass shooting.

“Hate groups” aren’t welcome

After VICE News questioned Facebook about the presence of hate groups on its platform last week, the network subsequently kicked the so-called “alt-right” leader Richard Spencer off. Facebook had previously refused to define what “hate group” meant.

But now that definition is public:

“A hate organization is defined as: Any association of three or more people that is organized under a name, sign, or symbol and that has an ideology, statements, or physical actions that attack individuals based on characteristics, including race, religious affiliation, nationality, ethnicity, gender, sex, sexual orientation, serious disease or disability.”

Based on that definition, Facebook has a lot of hate groups.

There’s a difference between “serial murderer” and “mass murderer”

Facebook’s guidelines suggest that moderators appraise content about different types of murderers differently, although it’s not entirely clear what these distinctions mean.

For example, the guidelines distinguish between a “serial murderer,” someone who has committed “two or more murders over multiple incidents or locations,” and a “mass murderer,” who’s responsible for “four or more deaths in one incident.”

Cover image: Life-sized cutouts of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wearing 'Fix Fakebook' t-shirts are displayed by advocacy group, Avaaz, on the South East Lawn of the Capitol on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, April 10, 2018, ahead of Zuckerberg's appearance before a Senate Judiciary and Commerce Committees joint hearing. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)