Privacy, Safety, and Policy Hub
Community Guidelines

Hateful Content, Terrorism, and Violent Extremism

Community Guidelines Explainer Series

Updated: January 2024

Overview

Hateful content and activities that support terrorism or violent extremism have no place on Snapchat. Our policies operate to create an environment that supports and prioritizes the safety of Snapchatters, and to protect communities from violence and discrimination.

It is never acceptable to engage in hateful conduct, including the use of hate speech or hate symbols. Activities that support or advocate for acts of terrorism or violent extremism are similarly prohibited and, if warranted, may be reported to law enforcement.

To help ensure these policies are enforced responsibly, our teams consult the expertise and work of civil rights organizations, human rights experts, law enforcement agencies, NGOs, and safety advocates. We are constantly learning, and will calibrate wherever necessary to ensure that our products and policies function to keep Snapchatters safe. To help us, we encourage users to promptly report any hateful content or activity that may violate our policies against terrorism and violent extremism.

  • Terrorist organizations, violent extremists, and hate groups are prohibited from using our platform. We have no tolerance for content that advocates or advances violent extremism or terrorism.

  • Hate speech or content that demeans, defames, or promotes discrimination or violence on the basis of race, color, caste, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or veteran status, immigration status, socio-economic status, age, weight or pregnancy status is prohibited

What you should expect

Snapchatters should feel safe and respected when using our products. Our policies against hateful content prohibit hate speech, which includes any content that demeans, or promotes discrimination towards, an individual or group of individuals on the basis of their race, color, caste, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, disability, veteran status, immigration status, socio-economic status, age, weight, or pregnancy status. These rules prohibit, for example, the use of racial, ethnic, misogynistic, or homophobic slurs; memes that ridicule or call for discrimination against a protected group; and any abuse in the form of intentional deadnaming or misgendering. Hate speech also extends to the valorization of perpetrators––or the denigration of victims––of human atrocities (such as genocide, apartheid, or slavery). Other prohibited hateful content includes the use of hate symbols, which means any imagery that is intended to represent hatred or discrimination toward others.

Our prohibitions against Terrorism and Violent Extremism extend to all content that promotes terrorism or other violent, criminal acts committed by individuals or groups to further ideological goals. These rules also prohibit any content that promotes or supports foreign terrorist organizations or extremist hate groups––as designated by credible, third-party experts––as well as recruitment for such organizations or violent extremist activities.

How we enforce these policies

Our in-app reporting tool allows users to directly report hateful content or activities that support terrorism or violent extremism. On our high-reach surfaces, like Spotlight and Discover, we take a proactive approach to moderating any content that may violate these rules. We nonetheless encourage users to report any harmful content you might encounter on these surfaces––this helps alert us to any breakdowns in our processes for keeping these spaces safe.

When hateful content is reported, our teams will remove any violating content and users who engage in repeated or egregious violations will have their account access locked. As an additional measure, we encourage Snapchatters to block any users who make them feel unsafe or uncomfortable.

Users engaged in terrorist activities or violent extremism will lose account privileges. In addition, certain information related to violations of these policies may be referred to law enforcement. For more information about how Snapchat responsibly engages with law enforcement agencies, visit Snap’s Privacy and Safety Hub.

Takeaway

We do not tolerate hateful content, terrorism, or violent extremism on Snapchat. Through both our policies and our product design, we work diligently to maintain an environment that supports and prioritizes the safety of Snapchatters.

Users can help us protect our community by reporting any content that violates our policies. We are also committed to working with diverse leaders from across the safety community to ensure we are advancing our safety objectives responsibly. For more information about our safety efforts, please visit our Safety Center.

Up Next:

Advertising Policies Overview

Read Next