How to Report a Facebook Page and What Happens When You Do That

Facebook is one of the most prominent social media platforms of the modern age and is often considered a pioneer in its field. While the company has been facing a lot of backlash over its advertising and privacy policies, it offers its users the ability to report content that does not follow community guidelines.

This also applies to offensive pages that you might want to get removed from the platform. Facebook reviews every report and takes necessary actions promptly. Let’s take a look at how you can report pages on Facebook.

How to report a Facebook page?

Reporting a Facebook page is a pretty easy process no matter what device you are using. Use one of the guides below depending on your device to help you get started.

For desktop users

Open Facebook in your desktop browser and log in to your account. Now navigate to the page you wish to report.

Now under its cover photo, click on the ‘3-dot’ menu icon beside the share icon.

Select ‘Find Support or Report Page’.

Now choose the type of problem you want to report about the page. Depending on your choice, Facebook will request additional information and might even require you to submit a detailed report.

Once you have made your choices, click on ‘Next’ in the bottom right corner of your screen.

Note: You can also choose ‘Report Page’ after submitting your support request to add additional details about the Community guidelines being violated by the current page.

Your request will be now be submitted to Facebook and the moderators will take appropriate action based on the request upon reviewing your report.

For mobile users using a browser

Open Facebook in your mobile browser and navigate to the page you wish to report to Facebook.

Now tap on the ‘3-dot’ menu icon beside the ‘Messenger’ icon.

Select ‘Find Support or Report Page’.

Choose the reason to report the page.

Tap on ‘Next’ at the bottom of your screen.

Your report will now be submitted to Facebook and the company will take the required action against the Page once your report has been reviewed by a moderator.

For mobile users using the Facebook App

Open the Facebook app and navigate to the Page you wish to report.

Tap on the ‘3-dot’ menu icon below the cover photo.

Select ‘Find Support or Report Page’.

Now select an appropriate reason that best fits your complaint.

Tap on ‘Next’ at the bottom of your screen once you are done.

Your report will now be submitted to Facebook.

What happens when you report a page on Facebook?

Once you submit a report to Facebook a ticket is generated for your request and the report is put in a queue for review. Once your number comes, a moderator will review your report. During this report, several factors are taken into account which is not disclosed to the public. However keen-eyed users and former Facebook employees have revealed certain criteria that have a significant impact when reviewing community guidelines violation reports. Let’s take a look at them.

Age of the Page
Owner Information available about the page
Advertising History
Advertising Identifier
Post History
Previous Reports
Community Region
Geographical Location
Target Audience
Post Content
Past Content History
Backlinks
Associated Pages
Collaborations

and more. The list goes on but these are some of the main factors used to decide the eligibility of a page on Facebook. Violation of multiple such policies will result in a ban for the page and associated account indefinitely.

Why you should report Pages to Facebook?

There can be multiple reasons why you don’t want certain content on Facebook. Let’s take a look at some reasons that Facebook strictly adheres to.

It can be hateful, harassing, spam, and derogatory. Facebook has strict policies against such content and you should report such pages whenever you see them.
It promotes hate speech against a particular group of society based on caste, religion, ethnic background, skin color, gender, and more.
It is scamming people by selling fake products or services.
The page is asking for money in exchange for arbitrary services that are never provided.
The page is impersonating someone or impersonating an organization.
The page is running a fake charity.
The page is sending phishing links and promoting unsafe websites.
The page is posting influential political content without any authority or approval.

There are many more valid reasons to report a page to Facebook. You can find a comprehensive list of them at this link.

How long before Facebook takes action?

Actions were taken quite promptly before COVID-19 and most reports could be responded to within 48 hours at maximum. Sadly, the onset of the pandemic has reduced the amount of moderation staff Facebook currently has at hand. And with more than half of the employees working from home, the delay times for taking action on submitted reports has increased significantly.

Facebook will notify you about this delay as soon as you submit a report to Facebook support. Once submitted, nowadays it can take anywhere from 48 hours to a week for Facebook to respond to your request.

You can however refer to your support inbox, where you can find a ticket number for your submitted report. This will also help you check the status of a particular report which can come in handy if you are looking to get personal information or photos removed from Facebook properties.

How many reports needed for Facebook to take action?

It usually takes around 10 reports for Facebook to take immediate action on for any Page. More than 10 reports will put the reported page in the priority queue for Facebook support. Though these minimum 10 reports will be individually reviewed by a moderator before the page is put in the priority queue.

How does Facebook handle reports?

Facebook handles most reports individually. These reports are prioritized based on the guidelines violated by the concerned page or the user. Facebook treats impersonation and fake identity reports with higher priority as this can help prevent legal repercussions in real life. Facebook also takes immediate action on reports of hate speech, harassment, and scams to prevent its users from getting harmed. Reports of ‘not liked’ content or ‘personal distrust’ are treated passively and checked for authenticity. Facebook will then corroborate such reports with previous reports to determine the necessary course of action in the future.

We hope this guide helped you learn everything you needed to know about reporting a Page to Facebook. If you face any more issues or have any questions, feel free to reach out to us using the comments section below.

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