As part of its efforts to make Facebook a safe and trusted environment, the social networking site has announced today a new way for users to send more specific and detailed information of abuse, such as online harassment, unwanted contact or offensive behaviors from others.
“Specifically, we created much more granular reporting categories for you to classify the issues you may come across including bullying or unwanted contact from other people on the site,” said Jessica Ghastin, specialist on the Facebook user operations team.
In addition, the company has created new fields where users can detail the location of abuse that occurs in videos or text. For example, if a user wants to report offensive content in a video, they can now tell Facebook the specific time during the video when the abuse occurs. Similarly, if reporting an offensive note, users can copy and paste the offensive text directly from its source.
To report abuse on the site, users will need to select the “Report” link located near photos, videos, notes and other content. From there, users will have the option to select from a set of categories to classify the content.
Facebook does point out, however, that it will not remove a photo or video just because it is unflattering. Rather, users can select from the following reasons why the photo or video may violate the company’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities: nudity or pornography, drug use, excessive gore or violence, attacks on individuals or groups, advertisement or spam or infringements on intellectual property.