Disturbing or Violent Content

Our Community Guidelines prohibit graphic, gratuitous, or shocking content involving humans, animals, or the natural world. This includes explicit violence, animal abuse or mistreatment, injury and death. Additionally, these Recommendation Eligibility Guidelines restrict any imagery intended to shock or disgust viewers, including disturbing natural processes, and extreme or unsafe eating, or using food to shock.

Content that depicts medical or cosmetic procedures (for example, pimple popping, ear cleaning, liposuction, etc.), is not eligible for recommendation if it depicts graphic imagery. “Graphic” in this context includes real-life imagery of bodily fluids or waste, such as pus, blood, urine, excrement, bile, infection, or decay. We deny amplification to intentionally, viscerally-disturbing human body imagery, such as sharp objects near the skin or eyes, or vermin near the mouth.

Our Community Guidelines prohibit expressing support for violence or encouraging violence against anyone. These Recommendation Eligibility Guidelines  go further to prohibit even ambiguous support for or tacit approval of violence, including mocking or celebrating the suffering of victims of violence.

Our Community Guidelines prohibit the promotion of self-injury, suicide or eating disorders. These Recommendation Eligibility Guidelines go further to deny amplification to content depicting, glorifying, encouraging, or trivializing self-harm or suicide, including suicidal ideation or threats, or content promoting eating disorders. 

Encouraging dangerous behavior is prohibited in our Community Guidelines. These Recommendation Eligibility Guidelines deny amplification to content that depicts dangerous activities performed by non-professionals, such as stunts or “challenges” that could result in injury, illness, death, harm, or property damage.

These Recommendation Eligibility Guidelines deny amplification to content that focuses on non-newsworthy violent or disturbing incidents, including violent or sexual crimes, especially those involving minors. For content to be considered “newsworthy,” it must be timely and involve a prominent individual, group or ongoing issue in the public interest.

In the context of national news, education, or public discourse, where there is no graphic imagery of death or mutilation. Disturbing incidents, such as sexual or violent crimes, may be newsworthy when they are timely and involve a prominent individual, group or issue in the public interest

in educational, recovery or public-interest contexts, including discussion of overcoming self-harm or eating disorders.

 including health issues, emotional distress, body image, or cosmetic procedures.

Where the skin is not broken.

Such as tattoo needles on skin or piercings in progress.

Without graphic imagery of death or gore.

such as spiders, insects, or trypophobia.

This includes violence in entertainment contexts (for example, in a movie, video game or comedy skit). This also includes horror-themed content (for example, special effects makeup, costumes, props). It also includes imagery meant to provoke a visceral reaction (for example, porous objects to trigger trypophobia, glue to simulate peeling skin, or seeds to simulate ticks).