Instagram Community Guidelines FAQs

What are Community Guidelines and how do they differ from Terms of Use?

We want Instagram to continue to be a safe place for inspiration and expression. Our Community Guidelines set out our policies for what we do and don’t allow on Instagram in order to achieve this. Our Terms of Use, on the other hand, are an agreement, outlining our obligations to you and your obligations to us (one of which is to not violate our Community Guidelines). Read our Terms of Use.

What do our Community Guidelines cover?

• Intellectual Property – Making sure you have the rights to post the content you share.
• Appropriate Imagery – We don’t allow nudity on Instagram, with some exceptions, like photos of post-mastectomy scarring and women actively breastfeeding. Nudity in photos of paintings and sculptures is OK, too.
• Spam – This is not allowed on Instagram (creating or submitting unwanted email, comments, likes or other forms of commercial or harassing communications).
• Illegal Content – We don’t allow support or praise of terrorism, organized crime or hate groups on Instagram. Offering sexual services and selling firearms and drugs are also prohibited.
• Hate Speech, Bullying and Abuse – We remove credible threats of violence, hate speech and the targeting of private individuals. We do not allow attacks or abuse based on race, ethnicity, national origin, sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, disability or disease.
• Self-Injury – We do not allow glorification or encouragement of self-injury, including eating disorders. We do allow content that references self-injury and eating disorders if it is for the purpose of creating awareness or signposting support.
• Graphic Violence – Graphic violence is not allowed and we may remove videos or images of intense, graphic violence to make sure that Instagram stays appropriate for everyone. If shared in relation to important and newsworthy events, and this imagery is shared to condemn or raise awareness and educate, it may be allowed.

Who decides what the Community Guidelines should cover?

Instagram is a reflection of our diverse community of cultures, ages and beliefs. We’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the different points of view that create a safe and open environment for everyone. We created the Community Guidelines so you can help us foster and protect this amazing community.

I think a photo, video or comment I’ve seen on Instagram breaks the Community Guidelines. What should I do?

If you see something that you think may violate any of our guidelines, please help us by using our built-in reporting option.

We have a global team that reviews these reports, and works to remove any content that violates our guidelines. These teams are based in locations worldwide in order to give coverage to reports 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Even if you or someone you know doesn’t have an Instagram account, you can still make a report. When you complete the report, try to provide as much information as possible, such as links, usernames and descriptions of the content, so we can find and review it quickly.

What happens if somebody breaches the Community Guidelines?

It is our policy to remove content that violates our community guidelines. We may remove entire posts if either the imagery or associated captions violate our guidelines. We also may disable entire accounts for violations of our Community Guidelines.

We may work with law enforcement, including when we believe that there’s risk of physical harm or threat to public safety. For more information, visit our full blog:section here or view the full guidelines on our Help Center.

Learn more about our Community Guidelines.