Suicide, Self-Injury, and Eating Disorders

Policy Rationale

We care deeply about the safety of the people who use our apps. We regularly consult with experts in suicide, self-injury and eating disorders to help inform our policies and enforcement, and we work with organizations around the world to provide assistance to people in distress.

While we do not allow people to intentionally or unintentionally celebrate or promote suicide, self-injury or eating disorders, we do allow people to discuss these topics because we want our services to be a space where people can share their experiences, raise awareness about these issues, and seek support from one another. We may also limit the ability to view this content to adults aged 18 and older.

We remove any content that encourages suicide, self-injury or eating disorders, including fictional content such as memes or illustrations, and any self-injury content which is graphic, regardless of context. We remove content that contains instructions for extreme weight loss behaviour. We also remove content that mocks victims or survivors of suicide, self-injury or eating disorders, as well as real time depictions of suicide or self-injury. Content about recovery from suicide, self-injury or eating disorders that is allowed, but may contain imagery that could be upsetting (such as a healed scar) is placed behind a sensitivity screen and we will also limit the ability to view the content to adults aged 18 and older.

When people post or search for suicide, self-injury or eating disorders related content, we will direct them to local organizations that can provide support and if our Community Operations team is concerned about immediate harm we will contact local emergency services to get them help.

We Remove:

  • Content that promotes, encourages, coordinates, or provides instructions for suicide, self-injury, or eating disorders
  • Content that depicts graphic suicide, self-injury or eating disorder imagery
  • Content depicting a person who engaged in a suicide attempt or death by suicide
  • Imagery of people when shared together with terms associated with eating disorders
  • Content that focuses on depiction of ribs, collar bones, thigh gaps, hips, concave stomach, protruding spine, scapula, visible bones in arms or legs or hollow cheeks when shared together with terms associated with eating disorders
  • Content that contains instructions for extreme weight loss behaviour
  • Content admitting to extreme weight loss behaviour when shared together with terms associated with eating disorders
  • Content that contains instructions for restrictive dieting when shared together with terms associated with eating disorders
  • Content that mocks victims or survivors of suicide, self-injury or eating disorders who are either publicly known or implied to be experiencing or have experienced suicide, self-injury or eating disorders
  • Imagery depicting body modification (e.g., tattoo, piercing, scarification, self-flagellation, etc.) when shared in a suicide or self-injury context
  • Photos or videos depicting a person who engaged in euthanasia/assisted suicide in a medical setting