Online Safety for Women in Government

At Facebook we are committed to providing a platform to help women in government safely connect and build their online communities. As a part of this effort we have taken a comprehensive approach that includes engaging with safety experts, developing new safety tools and resources, and creating policies that help prevent abuse on our platform. We collected the following best practices to help you stay safe on the platform and we acknowledge that our work is not done, there is still more we can do.

Facebook Protect
At this time, this program is only available in the US and provides elected officials, political candidates, and their staff, a way to further secure their Facebook and Instagram accounts. The Facebook Protect program will help us more quickly detect any potentially suspicious account activity. To begin the voluntary enrollment process, click here.

Safety tools
In order to create a positive experience for you and your community, we have created Page moderation tools to help protect your Page from unwanted content. For more guidance on moderating and protecting your Page, you can view our Safety Guide for Page Admins. There may be restrictions on the ability of government or political officials to take these actions pursuant to applicable laws and regulations. Please consult with your ethics or legal counsel if you have questions.

Privacy and Security Checkup
Our Privacy and Security Checkup guides you through your privacy and security settings, so you can review your choices to help ensure you’re sharing content with your intended audience. You’ll also have the ability to enable two-factor authentication, get alerts when someone tries logging into your account from an unrecognized computer or mobile device, and the option to further protect your password. By regularly taking the Privacy and Security Checkup, you can control what you share, keep your account secure and determine how people find your personal, political and official government accounts on Facebook.

Hate speech policy
We believe that people use their voice and connect more freely when they don’t feel attacked on the basis of who they are. That’s why we don’t allow hate speech on Facebook. This kind of behavior prevents people from feeling safe and respected on Facebook, and we don’t tolerate it. We recently expanded our policies to provide greater protections to people, including women, from different types of abuse. Keep reading to learn more about actions you can take to prevent hate speech.

Bullying and harassment
In our bullying and harassment policies, we distinguish between public figures and private individuals because we want to allow discourse, which can sometimes include critical commentary of elected officials. Context and intent matter, and we allow people to post and share if it’s clear that something was shared in order to condemn or draw attention to harassment.

Action you can take

Discussion of public figures must comply with our Community Standards, and we will remove content about public figures that violates our policies. If you experience or anyone you know experiences unwanted behavior on Facebook, you can report the person who is bullying or harassing you, anonymously ignore unwanted messages, or block someone without them being notified.

To stay up to date on our safety tools and resources we encourage you to visit our online Safety Center and to download our #SheLeads guide, which we created to provide women leaders with safety tips and best practices to protect themselves on our platform.