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At Pinterest, our mission is to bring everyone the inspiration to create a life they love, and it’s our guiding light in drafting and enforcing our content policies. 

Not everything on the internet is inspiring, so we have guardrails for what’s acceptable on Pinterest and what isn’t allowed. Our moderation practices are always evolving to keep up with new behaviors and trends and to create a more positive corner of the internet for the people on our platform. We continue to invest heavily in measures like machine learning technology to fight policy-violating content on Pinterest and to work with outside experts and organizations to inform our policies and content moderation practices.

We started publishing a biannualtransparency report in 2013, and expanded it starting with Q4 2020 to include more information on the actions we take to uphold ourCommunity guidelines. In this transparency report, you’ll find information on our efforts to moderate user and merchant content, such as the number of policy violations and deactivations. It also includes insight into the volume of information and deactivation requests we received from law enforcement and government agencies. This report, which encompasses more than 450 individual data points, covers the second half of 2021, from July through December 2021.

Pinterest’s industry-leading policies and practices are something we’re proud of. But more importantly, they’re the right thing for the people on our platform. They help to keep Pinterest a more positive and inspiring place online—for example, we prioritize mental health with features like ourcompassionate search function, and help protect users under our longstanding policy prohibitingmedical misinformation. We want to advance the industry on these issues so that—together—we can create a more inspiring internet.

We’ve continued to invest in improvements to provide greater insight into our efforts, and in this transparency report, we’ve added a new section on Intellectual Property policies enforcement. It covers Copyright and Trademark, including information on the actions we take based on information submitted through ourContent Claiming Portal, a tool that enables rightsholders to claim their content and decide if and how it appears on Pinterest.

We are also introducing reporting on a uniquely harmful class of online content, child sexual exploitation (CSE). CSE is one of the most serious violations of our content policies, and we do not tolerate the sexualization of minors on Pinterest.

These follow additions we made in our last report, covering Q1 and Q2 2021, to include a new metric on how we deactivate Pins, whether that’s through automated tools, manual review or a hybrid approach that combines elements of both. 

We’re committed to providing greater transparency into how we keep Pinterest safe and inspiring, and we'll continue to iterate on this report going forward.

 

We continue to invest in our policies, products and partnerships to support the safety and wellbeing of our community. Here are just some of the key updates we made in the second half of 2021.

Community wellbeing is improved when the diversity of our audience is reflected online. In August 2021, we introduced our latest advancement in inclusive beauty search with the rollout ofhair pattern search, a first-of-its-kind technology, created with Black, Brown and Latinx Pinners in mind, that empowers users to search for hair inspiration across hair types.

Through computer vision-powered object detection, hair pattern search enables Pinners to refine hair searches by six different hair patterns: protective, coily, curly, wavy, straight and shaved/bald.

This new technology builds on Pinterest’s industry-first inclusive product featureskin tone ranges, first launched in 2018. It not only marks a major step forward for inclusivity in tech, but also responds to the millions of Pinners who are looking for an easier way to find the most relevant hair inspiration for their purposes.

Around the world, people of all ages are facing challenges related to body image and mental health, particularly as we navigate the phases of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA), there’s been a steep rise in unhealthy eating habits and eating disorders in young people since the COVID-19 pandemic started.

Pinterest is the place people come for inspiration to create a life they love. It’s where everyone belongs—regardless of body shape or size. At Pinterest, we strive to create a culture where healthy living and healthy body image can thrive, which is why beginning July 1st, 2021 weupdated our ad policies to prohibit all ads with weight loss language and imagery. We're empowering Pinners to plan the next season and beyond without weight loss ads, so they can focus on what matters most.

This stance makes Pinterest the only major platform to prohibit all weight loss ads. It’s an expansion of our ad policies that have long prohibited body shaming and dangerous weight loss products or claims. We encourage others in the industry to do the same and acknowledge, once and for all, that there's no such thing as one-size-fits-all. 

This policy change was developed with the guidance and advice of NEDA. Unchanged are our policies against harassment and bullying: non-ad content that body-shames is and continues to be prohibited by our policies, and users who engage in these practices may have their accounts terminated.

Pinterest’sCommunity guidelines are designed to support our mission of inspiration. They govern what we do and don't allow on Pinterest, and all users must abide by them. 

We have additional guidelines formerchants andadvertisers to set clear expectations about what is and is not acceptable for product Pins and advertisements. These guidelines include especially high standards that are for the safety of all audiences who use Pinterest. We believe you can't feel inspired if you don't first feel safe.

To help us cultivate a safe and inspired community, we develop and enforce content policies that help ensure our platform is a positive place where people can find real-life ideas for what to try next, cook next, wear next, or do next. We work hard to identify and deactivate harmful content from our site, and our content policies and moderation practices are always evolving to keep up with new behaviors and trends and to create a more positive corner of the internet for users. 

We may block, limit the distribution of or deactivate content and the accounts, individuals and groups that create or spread that content, based on how much harm it poses. In the event that a user believes a deactivation was in error, Pinterest provides options to appeal the deactivation.

Every day, millions of people all over the world come to Pinterest to create, discover and save new ideas that are shared in Pins. To understand how we approach content moderation, it’s helpful to differentiate between two types of Pins: organic Pins and ads. OurCommunity guidelines apply to both.

Organic Pins include all Pins created and saved on Pinterest that are not promoted as ads. For example, this could include merchants’ product Pins, which aren’t always ads, and may appear organically to people who are searching for products on Pinterest. We have additional requirements, such as that the Pin image and description must accurately represent the product, formerchants and their product Pins. All types of organic Pins are included in our transparency reports.

Ads are Pins that businesses pay to promote. We have additional policies foradvertisers that hold ads and advertisers to even higher standards. Ad policies are enforced differently than organic content, and are not included in these transparency reports.

Much of the content on Pinterest has been saved repeatedly, meaning that the same image may appear in multiple Pins. So when it comes to reporting content moderation for organic Pins, we include the number of Pins deactivated as well as the number of distinct images deactivated to provide greater insight into our moderation practices for this type of content. 

We report boards and accounts deactivated separately. To avoid double-counting deactivations, our count of distinct images and Pins deactivated does not include those on boards or from user accounts that were deactivated.

 

We deactivate policy-violating Pins through automated tools, manual review and a hybrid approach that combines elements of both. 

Automated deactivations. Our automated tools use a combination of signals to identify and take action against potentially violating content. Our machine learning models assign scores to each image added to our platform. Using those scores, our automated tools can then apply the same enforcement decision to other Pins containing the same images.

Manual deactivations. We manually deactivate Pins through our human review process. Pins deactivated through this process may include those identified internally and those reported to us by third parties. It also includes the Pins that are reviewed and deactivated by one of our team members after a user report.

Hybrid deactivations. Hybrid deactivations include those where a human determines that a Pin violates policy, and automated systems help expand that decision to enforce against machine-identified matching Pins. Depending on the prevalence of matching Pins, a hybrid deactivation may result in a number of Pins deactivated or none at all. 

The mechanisms used to address different potential policy violations may vary based on the state of available technology, the volume of violative content and other factors such as the complexity of evaluation. We continue to iterate and evolve our tools and expect ongoing improvements going forward.

People often ask, how many users saw a Pin before it was deactivated? In most cases, the answer is: not a lot. 

For example, 76% of Pins that we deactivated for medical misinformation in Q4 were never seen by users in that reporting period—even with more than 400 million people visiting Pinterest per month.

Reach is one of our key indicators of user experience. To calculate this metric, we start by looking at each policy-violating Pin deactivated in a reporting period. Then we count the number of unique users that saw each of those Pins during the reporting period for at least 1 second before it was deactivated. Reach for a policy category may not add up to 100% due to rounding.

Users can report Pins they find objectionable by clicking on the three small dots on any Pin and hitting “Report Pin.” Once we confirm that an item is not fit for distribution on Pinterest under our Community guidelines and take appropriate action, we consider the report an actioned user report.

The total number of actioned user reports is another key indicator of user experience on Pinterest. So is the number of reporters: fewer than 0.01% of monthly active users reported a Pin that resulted in a Pin deactivation in Q3.

When users find Pins they like or want to come back to, they save them to boards that they’ve created. Over time, our users have created billions of boards. 

When a board is deactivated for violating policy, all the Pins on that board are also deactivated. Similarly, when we deactivate an entire account, that user’s boards are also deactivated. To avoid double-counting deactivations, our count of boards deactivated does not include those from user accounts that were deactivated.

Think of “accounts” on Pinterest as “profiles” or, most often, individual users. If someone saves Pins and creates boards, that content becomes associated with their account. This is also true for business, advertiser, merchant and creator accounts. 

Any account may be deactivated for violating our policies. When an account is deactivated, all of their Pins and boards are also deactivated. That means that if you search for them or click on an old link to their profile, that profile won’t show up anymore. Their Pins won’t appear anywhere on Pinterest. And the deactivated user won’t be able to access their own Pins or boards, either.

If people believe their accounts have been deactivated by mistake, they can follow an appeals process to have their accounts reinstated. We review appeal requests and grant the appeal if we determine we made a mistake, or in some cases to give people another chance to abide by ourCommunity guidelines.

We also process appeals for deactivated Pins and boards and expect to include that data in reports in the future.

Our reporting on Community guidelines enforcement covers the second half of 2021, from July to December 2021. We’ve split that time into two reporting periods: Q3 and Q4. 

Q3 covers the third quarter of the year, from July through September, while Q4 covers the fourth quarter of the year, from October through December. Sometimes we also refer to Q1 (January to March) or Q2 (April to June) when we’re talking about quarter-over-quarter trends.

Pinterest isn’t a place for pornography. We deactivate content that violates our adult content policy and do not deliver results for searches determined to violate this policy. We have established guidelines to help differentiate between pornography and other mature content such as content related to sexual health, breastfeeding, mastectomies, art and education.

In Q1 2021, we launched new machine learning tools to detect and deactivate boards for violating our adult content policy. Since then, we’ve continued to see declines in actioned user reports—one of our key indicators of user experience—that we attribute to this effort. In fact, looking at actioned user reports per monthly active user, there was a 25% decrease in reports that resulted in a deactivated Pin in Q4 2021 compared to Q4 2020.

Our content policies and moderation practices are always evolving to better keep our platform safe for all users. So far, we’ve primarily focused our use of these new machine learning tools on enforcing against our adult content policy, and we’re currently exploring how they may work for other types of policy violations.

* To calculate reach, we start by looking at each policy-violating Pin deactivated in a reporting period. Then we count the number of unique users that saw each of those Pins during the reporting period for at least 1 second, before it was deactivated. Quarterly percentages may not add up to 100% due to rounding.

In Q3 2021, we deactivated1,279,861 distinct images, which comprised42,968,305 Pins, for violating this policy. Of these Pins,82% were never seen by users in this reporting period. We deactivatedfewer than 1% manually andmore than 99% with hybrid tools. We actioned93,807 user reports that resulted in a Pin deactivated for violating this policy. We also deactivated61,114 boards and8,653 accounts. We received1,923 account appeals and reinstated1,119accounts.

In Q4 2021, we deactivated1,108,006 distinct images, which comprised30,695,545 Pins, for violating this policy. Of these Pins,88% were never seen by users in this reporting period. We deactivatedfewer than 1% manually andmore than 99% with hybrid tools. We actioned77,329 user reports that resulted in a Pin deactivated for violating this policy. We also deactivated44,155 boards and6,769 accounts for violating this policy. We received1,495 account appeals and reinstated774 accounts.

We prohibit adult sexual services on Pinterest. Adult sexual services may involve commercial sex work and sexual or physical exploitation or trafficking, such as escort services, prostitution, sex cams, or sex- or nudity-for-money services.

In Q4 2021, we made changes to the tools we use to deactivate this type of content. As a result of these improvements, content that previously would have been deactivated under our adult content policy is now deactivated under our adult sexual services policy. The increase in the portion of Pins deactivated with hybrid tools, as well as the increase in Pins deactivated, reflect these changes.

In Q3 2021, we deactivated222 distinct images, which comprised225 Pins, for violating this policy. Of these Pins,76% were seen by fewer than 100 users in this reporting period. We deactivated100% of Pins manually. We actioned266 user reports that resulted in a Pin deactivated for violating this policy. We also deactivated151 boards and152 accounts. We received13 account appeals and reinstated0 accounts.

In Q4 2021, we deactivated1,610 distinct images, which comprised26,703 Pins, for violating this policy. Of these Pins,89% were never seen by users in this reporting period. We deactivatedfewer than 1% manually andmore than 99% with hybrid tools. We actioned162 user reports that resulted in a Pin deactivated for violating this policy. We also deactivated120 boards and121 accounts for violating this policy. We received16 account appeals and reinstated1 account.

Pinterest does not tolerate child sexual exploitation (CSE) of any kind on our platform. That means we enforce a strict, zero-tolerance policy for any content—including imagery, video, or text—that might exploit or endanger minors. Detecting and removing this type of content is of the utmost importance to our Trust and Safety team, and we are proud of our broad-reaching policies and robust efforts to keep our users safe.

While digital platforms are required by law to prohibit illegal child sexual abuse material (CSAM), the CSE policy at Pinterest goes a step further to prohibit any content that contributes to the sexualization of minors. For example, we do not tolerate content that suggests the sexualization of minors in the form of cartoons or anime. We also prohibit the intentional misuse of content depicting minors engaging in non-sexualized activities, like modeling clothing or participating in athletics.

We proactively identify CSE images and videos by leveraging our own internal tools and shared industry tools such as PhotoDNA, which uses a shared industry hash database of known CSAM, and CSAI Match to identify video content. We also work closely with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) to combat this type of activity, and report content violations in appropriate circumstances under the law. From July to December 2021, our team of specialists was responsible for 1,794 CyberTipline reports to NCMEC.

CSE is one of the most serious harms addressed by Trust and Safety teams at Pinterest and across the Internet. Because of this sensitivity, it deserves extra consideration as we decide how to present information in this report. After consulting with industry experts, Pinterest ultimately chose to include all of the same metrics for CSE that we include for our other content policies, including reach and actioned user reports. These types of metrics are our indicators for how policy-violating content impacts the experience of users on the site. However, we want to be very clear: By sharing reach and actioned user reports for CSE content, we are not implying in any way that harm to children is somehow lessened if fewer people see it. The content is violative and wrong, no matter how many people see it. We share the data only to be transparent in our efforts to remove CSE from our platform. 

We also count all deactivations for CSE, no matter what other actions may have already been taken against the Pin, board or user. For example, if a Pin has been automatically deactivated—meaning no one on the platform can see it—for violating our Spam policy but we later learn that it contains material that violates our CSE policy, the Pin is counted in both our Spam and CSE deactivation numbers. Even though that Pin had not been visible or accessible on Pinterest, we still need to take appropriate action, like making a report to National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) if we determine that the image is illegal CSAM. We’ve included those deactivations in our reporting on CSE to provide more accurate insight into these violations.

While we work hard to find and remove this type of content, there is always more work to do—and we are committed to doing it.

In Q3 2021, we deactivated2,362 distinct images, which comprised262,164 Pins, for violating our CSE policy. Of these, we determined that295 distinct images, which comprised981 Pins, were illegal CSAM, and we reported them to NCMEC. Of the total Pins deactivated this quarter for CSE,98% were seen by fewer than 100 users in this reporting period. We deactivatedfewer than 1% manually andmore than 99% with hybrid tools. We actioned1,378 user reports that resulted in a Pin deactivated for violating this policy. We also deactivated862 boards and28,289 accounts. We received5,718 account appeals and reinstated4,305 accounts. 

In Q4 2021, we deactivated2,545 distinct images, which comprised104,029Pins, for violating our CSE policy. Of these, we determined that228 distinct images, which comprised627 Pins, were illegal CSAM, and we reported them to NCMEC. Of the total Pins deactivated this quarter for CSE,98% were seen by fewer than 100 users in this reporting period. We deactivated2% manually and98% with hybrid tools. We actioned1,044 user reports that resulted in a Pin deactivated for violating this policy. We also deactivated578 boards and17,423 accounts for violating this policy. We received3,110 account appeals and reinstated2,120 accounts.

Our civic misinformation policy prohibits false or misleading content on Pinterest that impedes an election’s integrity or an individual's or group's civic participation, including registering to vote, voting and being counted in a census.

We try to be very mindful about when we use hybrid tools and—more importantly—how to scale them. Remember, hybrid deactivations include those where a human determines that a piece of content violates policy, and automated systems expand that decision to enforce against machine-identified matching Pins. For example, a hybrid deactivation may be appropriate if we determine that the image in a Pin violates policy, but it may not be appropriate if the same image might be allowed in other situations, or if the initial Pin is deactivated for reasons other than the image it shows.

In Q4 2021, almost half of Pins deactivated for violating our civic misinformation policy were the result of the hybrid deactivation of a misclassified image. We reactivated those Pins once we spotted the error and have made improvements to our processes to minimize the chances that it will happen again.

We’ve included those false positives in the Q4 enforcement data, but we excluded them from the reach metric for this policy in an effort to provide more accurate insight into the number of users who saw a Pin that actually violates this policy before the Pin was deactivated. For Q4, more than 99% of such Pins were never seen by people in that reporting period.

In Q3 2021, we deactivated743 distinct images, which comprised889 Pins, for violating this policy. Of these Pins,95% were seen by fewer than 100 users in this reporting period. We deactivated87% of Pins manually and13% with hybrid tools. We actioned392 user reports that resulted in a Pin deactivated for violating this policy. We also deactivated92 boards and8 accounts. We received3 account appeals and reinstated3 accounts.

In Q4 2021, we deactivated779 distinct images, which comprised48,741Pins, for violating this policy. We later determined that hybrid deactivations based on one of these Pins, which had been deactivated for reasons other than the image it showed, resulted in the incorrect deactivation of its almost 24,000 machine-identified matching Pins. Of the Pins we believe were correctly deactivated,more than 99% were never seen by users in this reporting period. We deactivatedfewer than 1% of Pins manually and more than 99% with hybrid tools. We actioned224 user reports that resulted in a Pin deactivated for violating this policy. We also deactivated23 boards and0 accounts for violating this policy. We received1 account appeal and reinstated 1account.

Our conspiracy theories policy is one of several policies in our Community guidelines that prohibit misinformation and disinformation on Pinterest. Conspiracy theories include content that turns or encourages turning individuals, groups of people, places or organizations into targets of harassment or physical violence, such as hate-based conspiracy theories and misinformation about mass atrocities.

There was a relative decrease in the number of Pins deactivated for violating our conspiracy theory policy in Q3 and Q4 2021, following a sweeping cleanup performed in Q2.

In Q3 2021, we deactivated8,374 distinct images, which comprised536,455 Pins, for violating this policy. Of these Pins,93% were never seen by users in this reporting period. We deactivatedfewer than 1% of Pins manually andmore than 99% with hybrid tools. We actioned456 user reports that resulted in a Pin deactivated for violating this policy. We also deactivated429 boards and39 accounts. We received19 account appeals and reinstated4 accounts.

In Q4 2021, we deactivated2,411 distinct images, which comprised4,507 Pins, for violating this policy. Of these Pins,89% were never seen by users in this reporting period. We deactivated90% manually and10% with hybrid tools. We actioned394 user reports that resulted in a Pin deactivated for violating this policy. We also deactivated237 boards and11 accounts for violating this policy. We received13 account appeals and reinstated2 accounts.

Pinterest isn’t a place for trading, selling, or engaging in dangerous goods or activities. Dangerous goods are products or substances that might cause harm when used, altered or manufactured irresponsibly. Dangerous activities—including displaying or encouraging dangerous activities—are also not welcome on Pinterest.

There was a relative decrease in the number of Pins deactivated for violating our dangerous goods and activities policy in Q3 and Q4 2021, following a sweeping cleanup performed across the platform for such content in Q1 and Q2 of that year. That effort, applied to organic Pins and not promoted ads or products, generated a temporary spike in Pins deactivated during that time period.

In Q3 2021, we deactivated44,277 distinct images, which comprised1,017,444 Pins, for violating this policy. Of these Pins,95% were never seen by users in this reporting period. We deactivated2% manually,fewer than 1%automatically and98% with hybrid tools. We actioned1,780 user reports that resulted in a Pin deactivated for violating this policy. We also deactivated712 boards and223 accounts. We received14 account appeals and reinstated3 accounts.

In Q4 2021, we deactivated14,736 distinct images, which comprised31,186 Pins, for violating this policy. Of these Pins,97% were seen by fewer than 100 users in this reporting period. We deactivated41% of Pins manually,14% automatically and45%with hybrid tools. We actioned1,367 user reports that resulted in a Pin deactivated for violating this policy. We also deactivated591 boards and177 accounts for violating this policy. We received4 account appeals and reinstated1 account.

We prohibit graphic violence and threats on Pinterest. This includes most content that shows the use of violence, threats and language that glorifies violence.

In Q4 2021, we saw a relative decrease in Pins deactivated compared to Q3 2021. Of the Pins we deactivated in Q3 2021, 89% were seen by fewer than 100 users in that reporting period.

In Q3 2021, we deactivated4,026 distinct images, which comprised18,501Pins, for violating this policy. Of these Pins,89% were seen by fewer than 100 users in this reporting period. We deactivated48% of Pins manually and53% with hybrid tools. We actioned1,806 user reports that resulted in a Pin deactivated for violating this policy. We also deactivated1,085 boards and106 accounts. We received33 account appeals and reinstated18 accounts.

In Q4 2021, we deactivated3,435 distinct images, which comprised6,085 Pins, for violating this policy. Of these Pins,81% were seen by fewer than 100 users in this reporting period. We deactivated62% of Pins manually and38% with hybrid tools. We actioned1,714user reports that resulted in a Pin deactivated for violating this policy. We also deactivated769 boards and89 accounts for violating this policy. We received19 account appeals and reinstated3accounts.

Pinterest is not a place for harassment and criticism, and we prohibit content that insults, hurts or antagonizes individuals or groups of people. This includes manipulated images intended to degrade or shame, shaming people for their bodies or assumed sexual or romantic history, sexual remarks about people’s bodies, solicitations or offers of sexual acts, and mocking someone for experiencing sadness, grief, loss or outrage.

We deactivated fewer Pins for violating this policy in Q4 2021 than in Q3 2021. Of the Pins we deactivated in Q3, 86% were never seen by users in this reporting period.

In Q3 2021, we deactivated4,257 distinct images, which comprised244,688 Pins, for violating this policy. Of these Pins,86% were never seen by users in this reporting period. We deactivated1% of Pins manually and99% with hybrid tools. We actioned2,967 user reports that resulted in a Pin deactivated for violating this policy. We also deactivated851 boards and271 accounts. We received22 account appeals and reinstated13 accounts.

In Q4 2021, we deactivated4,318 distinct images, which comprised210,880 Pins, for violating this policy. Of these Pins,98% were seen by fewer than 100 users in this reporting period. We deactivated2% of Pins manually and98% with hybrid tools. We actioned2,564 user reports that resulted in a Pin deactivated for violating this policy. We also deactivated803 boards and151 accounts for violating this policy. We received28 account appeals and reinstated15 accounts.

We prohibit hateful content and the people and groups that promote hateful activities on Pinterest. Hateful activities include slurs and negative stereotypes, caricatures and generalizations, as well as support for hate groups and people promoting hateful activities.

We believe all people deserve a safe space to cultivate their interests and seek inspiration—regardless of their actual or perceived race, color, caste, ethnicity, immigration status, national origin, religion or faith, sex or gender identity, sexual orientation, disability or medical condition.

We performed a sweeping cleanup across the platform for hateful activities content in Q4 2021, leading to a temporary spike in Pins deactivated. This rise is not due to any known sustained increase of violative content. Of the Pins we deactivated in Q4, 99% were seen by fewer than 100 users in that reporting period.

In Q3 2021, we deactivated3,482 distinct images, which comprised9,805 Pins, for violating this policy. Of these Pins,86% were seen by fewer than 100 users in this reporting period. We deactivated46% of Pins manually and54% with hybrid tools. We actioned936 user reports that resulted in a Pin deactivated for violating this policy. We also deactivated1,758 boards and107 accounts. We received35 account appeals and reinstated21 accounts.

In Q4 2021, we deactivated3,848 distinct images, which comprised107,295 Pins, for violating this policy. Of these Pins,97% were never seen by users in this reporting period. We deactivated5% of Pins manually and95% with hybrid tools. We actioned1,074user reports that resulted in a Pin deactivated for violating this policy. We also deactivated409 boards and36 accounts for violating this policy. We received10 account appeals and reinstated5 accounts.

Our medical misinformation policy is one of several policies in our Community guidelines that prohibit misinformation and disinformation on Pinterest. This policy prohibits medically unsupported health claims that risk a user’s health or wider public health and safety, including the promotion of false cures, anti-vaccination advice, or misinformation about public health or safety emergencies. We rely on information from nationally and internationally recognized institutions, including the Centers for Disease Control and World Health Organization, to help us determine if content violates these guidelines.

Pinterest is deeply committed to combating health misinformation. We continue to engage with public health experts to stay on top of trends and get feedback on our policy and enforcement approaches for topics such as medical misinformation. As COVID-19 vaccines continue to be made available around the world, we saw a relative increase in the number of Pins deactivated in Q3 2021, and 99% of these Pins were seen by fewer than 100 users in that reporting period.

In Q3 2021, we deactivated4,237 distinct images, which comprised138,491 Pins, for violating this policy. Of these Pins,75% were never seen by users in this reporting period. We deactivated2% of Pins automatically,25% manually and74% with hybrid tools. We also deactivated383 boards and10 accounts. We received2 account appeals and reinstated0 accounts.

In Q4 2021, we deactivated3,564 distinct images, which comprised6,370 Pins, for violating this policy. Of these Pins,76% were never seen by users in this reporting period. We deactivated72% of Pins automatically,28% manually andfewer than 1% with hybrid tools. We also deactivated491 boards and14 accounts for violating this policy. We received4 account appeals and reinstated3 accounts.

Combating self-harm is a priority for us as we strive to ensure Pinterest plays a positive role in people’s lives. Content that displays, rationalizes or encourages suicide, self-injury, eating disorders or substance abuse isn’t welcome on our platform. This includes self-harm instructions, sensitive imagery, and suicidal thinking and quotes. 

Our ongoing partnership withSamaritans, an organization dedicated to reducing feelings of isolation and disconnection that can lead to suicide, continues to help the industry tackle self-harm content and make the internet a safer place for everyone. Partnerships like this help us support expert research and development within the field of mental health so that more people in need can find support, no matter what app or website they use. 

In Q3 and Q4 2021, we continued investing in work to improve content moderation for self-harm content and provided support millions of times to those in need through ourcompassionate search experience. 

We performed a sweeping cleanup across the platform for self-injury and harmful behavior content in Q4 2021, leading to a temporary spike in Pin deactivated. This rise is not due to any known sustained increase of violative content. Of the Pins we deactivated in Q4, 97% were never seen by users in that reporting period.

In Q3 2021, we deactivated4,156 distinct images, which comprised85,328 Pins, for violating this policy. Of these Pins,83% were never seen by users in this reporting period. We deactivated5% of Pins manually and95% with hybrid tools. We actioned1,667user reports that resulted in a Pin deactivated for violating this policy. We also deactivated575 boards and37 accounts. We received10 account appeals and reinstated9 accounts.

In Q4 2021, we deactivated16,761distinct images, which comprised395,682 Pins, for violating this policy. Of these Pins,97% were never seen by users in this reporting period. We deactivated1% of Pins manually and99% with hybrid tools. We actioned1,028 user reports that resulted in a Pin deactivated for violating this policy. We also deactivated82,518 boards and1,047 accounts for violating this policy. We received166 account appeals and reinstated133 accounts.

We want the inspiration and ideas on Pinterest to be high-quality and useful, so we deactivate spam when we find it. The goal of spammers is to make money, and the best way to do this is to spam at scale. It’s a numbers game: one million spam emails are much more effective than one spam email. The same kinds of spamming efforts can happen on any content distribution platform, including Pinterest. Platforms’ interactions with spammers are generally both adversarial and iterative with users who intentionally try to evade the system and continually update their techniques.

At Pinterest, we use the latest in machine learning technology to build automated models that swiftly detect and act against spam of all kinds. We not only use the latest modeling techniques but also iterate on these models at regular intervals by adding new data and exploring new technical breakthroughs to either maintain or improve their performance over time to effectively address spam. Given the adversarial, iterative nature of fighting spam, content enforcement numbers may change quarter-to-quarter, especially after a large attack.

In Q3 2021, we deactivated81,753 distinct images, which comprised233,303 Pins, for violating this policy. Of these Pins,63% were never seen by users in this reporting period. We deactivatedfewer than 1% of Pins manually andmore than 99% automatically. We also deactivated2,435,683 accounts for violating this policy. We received101,832 account appeals and reinstated77,936 accounts.

In Q4 2021, we deactivated61,834 distinct images, which comprised121,639 Pins, for violating this policy. Of these Pins,75% were never seen by users in this reporting period. We deactivatedfewer than 1% of Pins manually andmore than 99% automatically. We also deactivated1,736,742 accounts for violating this policy. We received103,257 account appeals and reinstated79,054 accounts.

Pinterest respects the intellectual property rights of others and we expect people on Pinterest to do the same. It’s our policy in appropriate circumstances to deactivate the accounts of people who repeatedly infringe or are repeatedly charged with infringing copyrights or other intellectual property rights.

Pinterest provides multiple mechanisms to submit notices alleging intellectual property infringement. The first can be found in-product right next to the content at issue. Users can flag Pins they find objectionable by clicking on the three small dots on any Pin and hitting “Report Pin.” We also provide a form and physical and email addresses for submitting intellectual property notices, all of which can be easily located on our Policy site. 

Submitters have the option to identify one piece of content or many. We assess each piece of content identified in a submission and process those that we find to be complete. If we need more information about the submitter or about any content identified, we engage with the person or entity that submitted that notice to give them the opportunity to provide that information. If at any point they are able to submit a complete and valid notice alleging intellectual property infringement, Pinterest will comply with the notice and deactivate the content identified.

We may consider a notice to be invalid and decline to deactivate content identified when appropriate, such as when the notice:

Given the complex nature of these cases, we’ve included a number of metrics to provide greater insight into the steps that we take to assess intellectual property submissions and engage with the persons or entities who submit them.

When a user’s content is deactivated as the result of an intellectual property notice, we send them an email notification that includes information on how to appeal our actions if they wish to do so. We evaluate appeals, which may be in the form of a counter-notice under the USDigital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), and remedy the situation if we determine that there was an actionable appeal. As we do with intellectual property notices, we engage with the person or entity who submitted the appeal to get more information if necessary. If at any point they are able to submit a complete and valid appeal, Pinterest will take appropriate action to remedy the situation.

Pinterest has always been a place for content creators, brands and publishers worldwide to feature their content and build value. Many creators upload their own content or encourage users to do so using buttons on their websites designed to facilitate saving to Pinterest, and welcome the exposure and user traffic generated when users save images. We work hard to give creators control over their content, including by designating which websites should be linked to and receive traffic from saved images, using features like our “No Pin” code if they wish to restrict saving from their websites, or claiming content on Pinterest through ourContent Claiming Portal. 

In cases where rightsholders do not want their content to appear on Pinterest, we offer several mechanisms for content removal. Copyright owners and those authorized to act on their behalf can report alleged copyright infringements through our copyright reporting mechanisms including our in-product reporting option,our reporting form or via email tocopyright [at]pinterest.com (copyright[at]pinterest[dot]com). Once we’ve assessed a copyright notice, we take appropriate action, which may include removing the reported content from Pinterest. We also offer theContent Claiming Portal, a toollaunched in 2021 that enables rightsholders to claim their content and decide if and how it appears on Pinterest. When we take action based on a copyright notice or information gathered in the Content Claiming Portal, we notify affected users and provide information on how to appeal our actions if they wish to.

Copyright and other forms of intellectual property present unique content moderation challenges. While moderators can often identify content that violates our other policies, like those prohibiting adult content or threats, simply by looking at the content, this is not the case for copyright. Identifying copyright infringement generally requires additional knowledge about the content’s origin, legal status, ownership, licensing, or other information that is not readily apparent—such as whether the owner authorized use by another party through agreements that Pinterest is not privy to. Because of this, rightsholders alone are in a position to know whether a particular use is or is not authorized. The notification process is a means for rightsholders to provide this necessary information to Pinterest. Copyright is also unique because the proper response to infringement is not always to deactivate the content. Some rightsholders may choose to deactivate content, while others prefer to keep their content on Pinterest but correct its attribution or add a link to their website. 

For these reasons, both our moderation process and the data reported here are not always directly comparable to our other sections on Community guidelines enforcement. That’s why, for example, we’ve added metrics such as the number of notices we processed based on the initial submission and the number of times we sought more information, and omitted our metric showing the reach of deactivated Pins. We’re committed to providing greater transparency into how we enforce intellectual property protections on Pinterest, and we'll continue to iterate on this report going forward.

 

In Q3 2021, we received26,434 submissions through our copyright reporting mechanisms. Of these submissions,190 were determined to be requests unrelated to intellectual property and forwarded to the appropriate team at Pinterest. We determined that another4,649 were spam and discarded them. We found15,537 to be complete upon submission, and we processed all content identified in each notice. We sought information for an additional5,471 submissions which we determined to be incomplete and ultimately processed1,149 of those submissions. In total, we processed16,686 notices and deactivated51,833 distinct images, which comprised12,520,214 Pins, under our copyright policies. We deactivatedfewer than 1% of Pins manually andmore than 99% with hybrid tools. We deactivated714 accounts for violating our policy against repeat infringers. We received514 appeals, found374 to be complete and facially valid, and took appropriate action.

We also received25,438 requests through the Content Claiming Portal in Q3 2021. We processed22,447 requests, which included deactivating397 distinct images, comprising136,258 Pins. We received7 appeals for content deactivated in this manner, found4 to be complete and facially valid, and took appropriate action.

In Q4 2021, we received21,199 submissions through our copyright reporting mechanisms. Of these submissions,159 were determined to be requests unrelated to intellectual property and forwarded to the appropriate team at Pinterest. We determined that another2,925 were spam and discarded them. We found11,969 to be complete upon submission, and we processed all content identified in each notice. We sought information for an additional5,473 submissions which we determined to be incomplete and ultimately processed1,143 of those submissions. In total, we processed13,112notices and deactivated35,966 distinct images, which comprised10,835,478 Pins, under our copyright policies. We deactivatedfewer than 1% of Pins manually andmore than 99% with hybrid tools. We deactivated292 accounts for violating our policy against repeat infringers. We received523 appeals, found419 to be complete and facially valid, and took appropriate action. 

We also received6,839 requests through the Content Claiming Portal in Q4 2021. We processed6,161requests, which included deactivating450 distinct images, comprising133,861 Pins. We received35 appeals for content deactivated in this manner, found14 to be complete and facially valid, and took appropriate action.

Pinterest respects the trademark rights of others. Trademark owners can contact us through our trademark reporting mechanisms, such as our in-product reporting option, thetrademark complaint form or by emailing us attrademark [at]pinterest.com (trademark[at]pinterest[dot]com), if they have concerns that someone may be using their trademark in an infringing way on our site. We review submissions we receive and take appropriate action, including removal of the content at issue from Pinterest.

As with copyright, both our moderation process and the data reported here are not always directly comparable to our other Community guidelines enforcement. That’s why, for example, we’ve added metrics such as the number of notices we processed based on the initial submission and the number of times we sought more information, and omitted our metric showing the reach of deactivated Pins.

In Q3 2021, we received4,217 submissions through our trademark reporting mechanisms. Of these submissions, we determined that1,241 were spam and discarded them. We found1,094 to be complete upon submission, and we processed all content identified in each notice. We sought information for an additional1,521 submissions which we determined to be incomplete and ultimately processed107 of those submissions. In total, we processed1,201 notices and deactivated29,557 distinct images, which comprised36,400 Pins, under our trademark policies. We deactivated100% of Pins manually. We deactivated82boards and128 accounts under our trademark and related policies. We received18 appeals, found2 to be complete and facially valid, and took appropriate action.

In Q4 2021, we received3,776 submissions through our trademark reporting mechanisms. Of these submissions, we determined that496 were spam and discarded them. We found985 to be complete upon submission, and we processed all content identified in each notice. We sought information for an additional2,112 submissions which we determined to be incomplete and ultimately processed88 of those submissions. In total, we processed1,073 notices and deactivated25,366 distinct images, which comprised33,181 Pins, under our trademark and related policies. We deactivated100% of Pins manually. We deactivated150 boards and135 accounts under our trademark and related policies. We received5 appeals, found2 to be complete and facially valid, and took appropriate action.

This section provides insight into the volume of information and deactivation requests received from law enforcement and government agencies in the second half of 2021, from July through December 2021. For more information on how we respond to requests for account information, refer to ourLaw enforcement guidelines.

Pinterest receives legal requests from law enforcement and government agencies for Pinterest account information. We diligently review each request, and only produce data for those that meet the requirements of law and our policies. Our policy is to notify users of government requests for their information prior to disclosing, unless we are prohibited by law or in exceptional circumstances.

* Law enforcement requests such as wiretap orders, pen registers, trap and trace, and emergency disclosure requests.

** The account owner was notified before production.

* Law enforcement requests such as wiretap orders, pen registers, trap and trace, and emergency disclosure requests.

** The account owner was notified before production.

* Any national security letters and orders issued under the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act for user information.

We sometimes receive requests from government agents to deactivate content on Pinterest that may be illegal in their country and/or a violation of ourCommunity guidelines. 

We review the requests to determine if the content identified violates ourCommunity guidelines. Our teams take action on violations, ranging from deactivating the content globally to restricting access to the content within the relevant country if it violates local law but does not violate our policies. 

Pinterest received a total of 6,618 requests from July to December 2021. We deactivated content for 4,905 of those requests for violating our Community guidelines and restricted content on 1,443 requests. Content for 270 requests was inactive by the time it was reviewed in response to the government removal request. This can happen when, for instance, the content was deactivated in response to a user report prior to Pinterest receiving the government removal request.

* Content violated our Community guidelines and was removed from the platform.

** Content was reported by a government agency but did not violate our Community guidelines and was restricted from appearing only in the country where the request originated, based on local law.

*** Content was no longer available on the platform by the time it was reviewed in response to the government removal request.

Creating the most positive space online doesn't happen by accident: It happens through proactive policy and product decisions. We have industry-leading positions on content safety that are informed by inputs and advice from outside experts, civil society and government. We also invest heavily in measures like machine learning technology to maintain a safe and positive space for the people on Pinterest. We’re proud of what we’re doing to keep Pinterest safe and to move the broader industry forward. 

Let’s create a safer, more inspired internet, together.

At Pinterest, our mission is to bring everyone the inspiration to create a life they love, and it’s our guiding light in drafting our content policies. 

Not everything on the internet is inspiring, so we have guardrails for what’s acceptable on Pinterest and what isn’t allowed. Our moderation practices are always evolving to keep up with new behaviors and trends and to create a more positive corner of the internet for the people on our platform. We continue to invest heavily in measures like machine learning technology to fight policy-violating content on Pinterest and to work with outside experts and organizations to inform our policies and content moderation practices.

We started publishing a biannualtransparency report in 2013. Then, starting with Q4 2020, we expanded the report to include new information on the actions we take to uphold ourCommunity guidelines. In this transparency report, you’ll find information on our efforts to moderate user and merchant content, such as the number of policy violations and deactivations. This report also includes insight into the volume of information and deactivation requests we received from law enforcement and government agencies. The data reported here covers the first half of 2021, from January through June 2021.

Pinterest’s industry-leading policies and practices are something we’re proud of. But more importantly, they’re the right thing for the people on our platform. They help to keep Pinterest a more positive and inspiring place online—for example, we prioritize mental health with features like our compassionate search function, and help protect users under our longstanding policy prohibiting medical misinformation. We want to advance the industry on these issues so that—together—we can create a more inspiring internet.

This report might look a little different from ourlast transparency report. For one thing, we know that numbers alone can’t tell the whole story so we’ve added a section on Community safety and wellbeing, which describes some of the ways we’ve invested in our community through policies, products and partnerships this past half. We’re proud of the work we’ve done in this area, and we’re committed to continuing to invest in the health of our community.

We’ve also updated our section on Community guidelines enforcement to be organized by policy category instead of action type. So, for example, in our last report there was a section on Pin deactivations and another for board deactivations—now, there is a section for each policy category that includes the number of Pins and boards deactivated for violating that policy. We made this change to provide a more holistic view of our content moderation actions within a policy category. 

It’s important to note that, even with this new format, we’re still reporting all the same information that we included in our last transparency report. In fact, we’ve also added new information—specifically, data on how we deactivate Pins, whether that’s through automated tools, manual review or a hybrid approach that combines elements of both. Check out the methodology section below for more information on how we calculated this data.

We’re committed to providing greater transparency into how we keep Pinterest safe and inspiring, and we'll continue to iterate on this report going forward.

We continue to invest in our policies, products and partnerships to support the safety and wellbeing of our community. Here are just some of the key updates we made in the first half of 2021.

As a content distribution platform, we have a responsibility to diminish bias in the algorithms and systems that drive Pinterest. We do this in large part by applying diverse data in our artificial reality (AR) and artificial intelligence (AI) technology. Our focus in these areas can be seen in how we’ve developed features likeAR Try on andskin tone ranges that allow users to refine beauty-related searches to find what they’re looking for. Our dataset has diversified over time to help people customize their searches. In the first half of the year, there were millions of searches using skin tone ranges, and in March 2021, we expanded the feature to thirteen additional countries: France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Netherlands, India, Indonesia, Brazil, Argentina, México, and Colombia. 

As part of our work to build a positive online space for creators, we introduced theCreator Code, our content commitment designed to educate and empower content creators to fulfill their responsibility to keep Pinterest a positive and inspiring place. The Code outlines core pillars that Creators must accept before posting Idea Pins: Be kind. Check your facts. Do no harm. Watch for triggers. Practice inclusion. 

Simply put, the Code asks Creators to lead with positivity, kindness and inclusion. This collective effort to mitigate negativity is a critical step in our journey to build a positive experience that adds lasting value to the lives of people on Pinterest.

In February 2021,we supportedNational Eating Disorders Awareness Week in partnership with the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA), the largest nonprofit organization in the United States dedicated to supporting individuals and families affected by eating disorders.

With this year’s theme, NEDA invited “Every Body to Have a Seat at the Table” by welcoming conversations on awareness, challenging systemic biases and sharing stories from all backgrounds and experiences. We donated ad credits to encourage people to tune into NEDAwareness Week events and the different roundtables taking place. NEDA used a new Pinterest format—Idea Pins—to educate users about eating disorders communication and recovery, and we featured those Idea Pins on the Today Tab to help generate awareness of these topics on our platform.

We continuously work with third party experts and organizations, like NEDA, to get advice and feedback on our policy and enforcement approaches. Collaborations with experts help us properly address policy updates, look for cross-platform trends and combat misinformation.

For several years, we have been at the forefront ofcombating health misinformation online and ensuring people on Pinterest have access to authoritative information about important health issues, like vaccines. In fact, we were one of the first platforms to implement a policy prohibiting health misinformation in 2017. 

The team introduced our first phase of COVID misinformation efforts in February 2020, including customizing the search experience with results from experts like the World Health Organization (WHO) and Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and prohibiting ads that offered misleading cures or treatments for COVID-19.

In March 2021, we furthered our commitment to combat COVID-19 vaccine misinformation by:

Pinterest’sCommunity guidelines are designed to support our mission of inspiration. They govern what we do and don't allow on Pinterest, and all users must abide by them. 

We have additional guidelines formerchants andadvertisers to set clear expectations about what is and is not acceptable for product Pins and advertisements. These guidelines include especially high standards that are for the safety of all audiences who use Pinterest. We believe you can't feel inspired if you don't first feel safe.

To help us cultivate a safe and inspired community, we develop and enforce content policies that help ensure our platform is a positive place where people can find real-life ideas for what to try next, cook next, wear next, or do next. We work hard to identify and deactivate harmful content from our site, and our content policies and moderation practices are always evolving to keep up with new behaviors and trends and to create a more positive corner of the internet for users. 

We may block, limit the distribution of or deactivate content and the accounts, individuals and groups that create or spread that content, based on how much harm it poses. In the event that a user believes a deactivation was in error, Pinterest provides options to appeal the deactivation.

Every day, millions of people all over the world come to Pinterest to create, discover and save new ideas that are shared in Pins. To understand how we approach content moderation, it’s helpful to differentiate between two types of Pins: organic Pins and ads. OurCommunity guidelines apply to both.

Organic Pins include all Pins created and saved on Pinterest that are not promoted as ads. For example, this could include merchants’ product Pins, which aren’t always ads, and may appear organically to people who are searching for products on Pinterest. We have additional requirements, like that the Pin image and description must accurately represent the product, formerchants and their product Pins. All types of organic Pins are included in our transparency reports.

Ads are Pins that businesses pay to promote. We have additional policies foradvertisers that hold ads and advertisers to even higher standards. Ad policies are enforced differently than organic content, and are not included in these transparency reports.

Much of the content on Pinterest has been saved repeatedly, meaning that the same image may appear in multiple Pins. So when it comes to reporting content moderation for organic Pins, we include the number of Pins deactivated as well as the number of distinct images deactivated to provide greater insight into our moderation practices for this type of content. 

We report boards and accounts deactivated separately. To avoid double-counting deactivations, our count of distinct images and Pins deactivated does not include those on boards or from user accounts that were deactivated.

We deactivate policy-violating Pins through automated tools, manual review and a hybrid approach that combines elements of both. 

Automated deactivations. Our automated tools use a combination of signals to identify and take action against potentially violating content. Our machine learning models assign scores to each image added to our platform. Using those scores, our automated tools can then apply the same enforcement decision to other Pins containing the same images.

Manual deactivations. We manually deactivate Pins through our human review process. Pins deactivated through this process may include those identified internally and those reported to us by third parties. It also includes the Pins that are reviewed and deactivated by one of our team members after a user report.

Hybrid deactivations. Hybrid deactivations include those where a human determines that a Pin violates policy, and automated systems help expand that decision to enforce against machine-identified matching Pins. Depending on the prevalence of matching Pins, a hybrid deactivation may result in a number of Pins deactivated or none at all. 

The mechanisms used to address different potential policy violations may vary based on the state of available technology, the volume of violative content and other factors such as the complexity of evaluation. We continue to iterate and evolve our tools and expect ongoing improvements going forward.

People often ask, how many users saw a Pin before it was deactivated? In most cases, the answer is: not a lot. 

For example, 70% of Pins that we deactivated for civic misinformation in Q2 were never seen by users in that reporting period—even with more than 400 million people visiting Pinterest per month.

Reach is one of our key indicators of user experience. To calculate this metric, we start by looking at each policy-violating Pin deactivated in a reporting period. Then we count the number of unique users that saw each of those Pins during the reporting period for at least 1 second, before it was deactivated. Reach for a policy category may not add up to 100% due to rounding.

Users can report Pins they find objectionable by clicking on the three small dots on any Pin and hitting “Report Pin.” Once we confirm a policy violation and take action, we consider the report an actioned user report.

The total number of actioned user reports—in other words, reports found to have correctly identified policy violations—is another key indicator of user experience on Pinterest. So is the number of reporters: fewer than 0.01% of monthly active users reported a Pin that resulted in a Pin deactivation in Q2.

When users find Pins they like or want to come back to, they save them to boards that they’ve created. Over time, our users have created billions of boards. 

When a board is deactivated for violating policy, all the Pins on that board are also deactivated. Similarly, when we deactivate an entire account, that user’s boards are also deactivated. To avoid double-counting deactivations, our count of boards deactivated does not include those from user accounts that were deactivated.

Think of “accounts” on Pinterest as “profiles” or, most often, individual users. If someone saves Pins and creates boards, that content becomes associated with their account. This is also true for business, advertiser, merchant and creator accounts. 

Any account may be deactivated for violating our policies. When an account is deactivated, all of their Pins and boards are also deactivated. That means that if you search for them or click on an old link to their profile, that profile won’t show up anymore. Their Pins won’t appear anywhere on Pinterest. And the deactivated user won’t be able to access their own Pins or boards, either.

If people believe their accounts have been deactivated by mistake, they can follow an appeals process to have their accounts reinstated. We review appeal requests and grant the appeal if we determine we made a mistake, or in some cases to give people another chance to abide by ourCommunity guidelines.

We also process appeals for deactivated Pins and boards and expect to include that data in reports in the future.

Our reporting on Community guidelines enforcement covers the first half of 2021, from January to June 2021. We’ve split that time into two reporting periods: Q1 and Q2. 

Q1 covers the first quarter of the year, from January through March 2021, while Q2 covers the second quarter of the year, from April through June 2021. Sometimes we also refer to Q4 2020 (October to December 2020) when we’re talking about quarter-over-quarter trends.

Pinterest isn’t a place for pornography. We deactivate content that violates our adult content policy and do not deliver results for searches determined to violate this policy. We have established guidelines to help differentiate between pornography and other mature content such as content related to sexual health, breastfeeding, mastectomies, art and education.

In Q1 2021, we launched new machine learning tools to detect and deactivate boards for violating our adult content policy. As a result, we saw an increase in the number of boards and accounts deactivated. Looking at Q2 2021 compared to Q4 2020, there was also a 15% decrease in actioned user reports per monthly active user—one of our key indicators of user experience—that we attribute to this effort.

Our content policies and moderation practices are always evolving to better keep our platform safe for all users. So far, we’ve focused our use of these new machine learning tools on enforcing against our adult content policy, and we’re currently exploring how they may work for other types of policy violations. 

* To calculate reach, we start by looking at each policy-violating Pin deactivated in a reporting period. Then we count the number of unique users that saw each of those Pins during the reporting period for at least 1 second, before it was deactivated. Quarterly percentages may not add up to 100% due to rounding.

In Q1 2021, we deactivated2,029,934 distinct images, which comprised47,120,204 Pins, for violating this policy. Of these Pins,80% were never seen by users in this reporting period. We deactivated fewer than1%manually and more than99%with hybrid tools. We actioned128,015 user reports that resulted in a Pin deactivated for violating this policy. We also deactivated179,994 boards and17,659 accounts. We received2,335 account appeals and reinstated1,634 accounts.

In Q2 2021, we deactivated1,486,098 distinct images, which comprised46,130,733 Pins, for violating this policy. Of these Pins,81% were never seen by users in this reporting period. We deactivated fewer than1% manually and more than99% with hybrid tools. We actioned136,218 user reports that resulted in a Pin deactivated for violating this policy. We also deactivated131,664 boards and13,468 accounts for violating this policy. We received2,398 account appeals and reinstated1,442 accounts.

We prohibit adult sexual services on Pinterest, and the amount of such content we find on the platform is low. Adult sexual services may involve commercial sex work and sexual or physical exploitation or trafficking, such as escort services, prostitution, sex cams, or sex- or nudity-for-money services.

Sometimes Pins do not have content that would violate our adult content policy but may still contain offers for adult sexual services. When we identify Pins like that, we deactivate them for violating our adult sexual services policy. 

In Q2 2021, we deactivated 1,263 Pins for violating this policy, and of those, 78% were seen by fewer than 100 users in that reporting period.

In Q1 2021, we deactivated520 distinct images, which comprised533 Pins, for violating this policy. Of these Pins,71% were seen by fewer than 100 users in this reporting period. We deactivated100% of Pins manually. We actioned536 user reports that resulted in a Pin deactivated for violating this policy. We also deactivated348 boards and271 accounts. We received11 account appeals and reinstated3 accounts.

In Q2 2021, we deactivated1,245 distinct images, which comprised1,263 Pins, for violating this policy. Of these Pins,78% were seen by fewer than 100 users in this reporting period. We deactivated100% of Pins manually. We actioned613 user reports that resulted in a Pin deactivated for violating this policy. We also deactivated708 boards and500 accounts for violating this policy. We received14 account appeals and reinstated4 accounts.

We introduced our civic misinformation policy in 2020 as an addition to several existing Community guidelines on misinformation and disinformation. This policy prohibits false or misleading content on Pinterest that impedes an election’s integrity or an individual's or group's civic participation, including registering to vote, voting and being counted in a census.

As part of our efforts to maintain a safe platform during the US presidential transition, there was a relative increase in the number of boards and accounts deactivated for violating this policy in Q1 2021.

In Q1 2021, we deactivated2,044 distinct images, which comprised6,895 Pins, for violating this policy. Of these Pins,80% were never seen by users in this reporting period. We deactivated96% of Pins manually and4% with hybrid tools. We actioned111 user reports that resulted in a Pin deactivated for violating this policy. We also deactivated546 boards and45 accounts. We received13 account appeals and reinstated11 accounts.

In Q2 2021, we deactivated349 distinct images, which comprised2,316Pins, for violating this policy. Of these Pins,70% were never seen by users in this reporting period. We deactivated16% of Pins manually and84% with hybrid tools. We actioned118 user reports that resulted in a Pin deactivated for violating this policy. We also deactivated92 boards and9 accounts for violating this policy. We received4 account appeals and reinstated3 accounts.

Our conspiracy theory policy is one of several policies in our Community guidelines that prohibit misinformation and disinformation on Pinterest. Conspiracy theories include content that turns or encourages turning individuals, groups of people, places or organizations into targets of harassment or physical violence, such as hate-based conspiracy theories and misinformation about mass atrocities.

Sometimes, we perform a sweeping cleanup across the platform that can cause a temporary spike in take-downs of certain types of content. The ultimate outcome is of course a good thing: a cleaner, safer, more inspiring place for everyone. 

We saw this with conspiracy theories in Q2 when we performed a cleanup across the platform, as part of our usual content enforcement efforts. This generated a temporary spike in Pins deactivated. This rise is not due to any known increase of violative content, and more importantly 95% of those Pins were never seen by users during that reporting period.

In Q1 2021, we deactivated24,134 distinct images, which comprised166,189 Pins, for violating this policy. Of these Pins,92% were never seen by users in this reporting period. We deactivated2% of Pins manually and98% with hybrid tools. We actioned217 user reports that resulted in a Pin deactivated for violating this policy. We also deactivated592 boards and116 accounts. We received20 account appeals and reinstated11 accounts.

In Q2 2021, we deactivated16,204 distinct images, which comprised1,148,947 Pins, for violating this policy. Of these Pins,95% were never seen by users in this reporting period. We deactivated fewer than1% manually and more than99% with hybrid tools. We actioned318 user reports that resulted in a Pin deactivated for violating this policy. We also deactivated451 boards and81 accounts for violating this policy. We received13 account appeals and reinstated5 accounts.

Pinterest isn’t a place for trading, selling, or engaging in dangerous goods or activities. Dangerous goods are products or substances that might cause harm when used, altered or manufactured irresponsibly. Dangerous activities—including displaying or encouraging dangerous activities—are also not welcome on Pinterest.

We performed a sweeping cleanup across the platform for dangerous goods and activities content in Q1 and Q2 2021, leading to a temporary spike in take-downs of this type of content. The ultimate outcome of work like this is a cleaner, safer, more inspiring place for everyone. 

This effort, applied to organic Pins and not promoted ads or products, generated a temporary spike in Pins deactivated for violating this policy. This rise is not due to any known sustained increase of violative content.

A smaller portion of the increase in Pins deactivated in Q1 2021 was driven by the detection and deactivation of Pins related to a harmful weight-control drug, which also led to the deactivation of a significant number of boards and accounts. 

In Q1 2021, we deactivated108,534 distinct images, which comprised839,389 Pins, for violating this policy. Of these Pins,95% were never seen by users in this reporting period. We deactivated5% manually, fewer than1% automatically and95% with hybrid tools. We actioned3,136 user reports that resulted in a Pin deactivated for violating this policy. We also deactivated2,344 boards and403 accounts. We received14 account appeals and reinstated4 accounts.

In Q2 2021, we deactivated938,363 distinct images, which comprised12,286,669 Pins, for violating this policy. Of these Pins,97% were never seen by users in this reporting period. We deactivated fewer than1% of Pins manually, fewer than1% automatically and more than99% with hybrid tools. We actioned3,394 user reports that resulted in a Pin deactivated for violating this policy. We also deactivated1,814 boards and501 accounts for violating this policy. We received17 account appeals and reinstated5 accounts.

We prohibit graphic violence and threats on Pinterest. This includes most content that shows the use of violence, threats and language that glorifies violence.

There was a relative increase in the amount of content deactivated for violating our graphic violence and threats policy during the US presidential transition in Q1 2021.

In Q1 2021, we deactivated3,376 distinct images, which comprised254,455 Pins, for violating this policy. Of these Pins,96% were never seen by users in this reporting period. We deactivated2% of Pins manually and98% with hybrid tools. We actioned873 user reports that resulted in a Pin deactivated for violating this policy. We also deactivated1,184 boards and243accounts. We received15 account appeals and reinstated10 accounts.

In Q2 2021, we deactivated4,005 distinct images, which comprised7,173 Pins, for violating this policy. Of these Pins,74% were seen by fewer than 100 users in this reporting period. We deactivated79% of Pins manually and21% with hybrid tools. We actioned1,848 user reports that resulted in a Pin deactivated for violating this policy. We also deactivated767 boards and72 accounts for violating this policy. We received29 account appeals and reinstated13 accounts.

Pinterest is not a place for harassment and criticism, and we prohibit content that insults, hurts or antagonizes individuals or groups of people. This includes manipulated images intended to degrade or shame, shaming people for their bodies or assumed sexual or romantic history, sexual remarks about people’s bodies, solicitations or offers of sexual acts, and mocking someone for experiencing sadness, grief, loss or outrage.

We try to be very mindful about when we use hybrid tools and—more importantly—how to scale them. Remember, hybrid deactivations include those where a human determines that a piece of content violates policy, and automated systems expand that decision to enforce against machine-identified matching Pins. For example, a hybrid deactivation may be appropriate if we determine that the image in a Pin violates policy, but it may not be appropriate if the same image might be allowed in other situations, or if the initial Pin is deactivated for reasons other than the image it shows.

In Q2 2021, the vast majority of Pins deactivated for violating our harassment and criticism policy were the result of a hybrid deactivation that included a small handful of misclassified images. We reactivated those deactivated Pins once we spotted the error and have made improvements to the process to minimize the chances that it will happen again.

We’ve included those false positives in the Q2 enforcement data, but we excluded them from the reach metric for this policy in an effort to provide more accurate insight into the number of users who saw a Pin that actually violates this policy before the Pin was deactivated. For Q2, 79% of such Pins were never seen by people in that reporting period.

* See the Recent trends section above for details on how we calculated reach for this policy in Q2 2021.

In Q1 2021, we deactivated5,540 distinct images, which comprised124,713 Pins, for violating this policy. Of these Pins,87% were never seen by users in this reporting period. We deactivated11% of Pins manually and89% with hybrid tools. We actioned4,483 user reports that resulted in a Pin deactivated for violating this policy. We also deactivated977 boards and594accounts. We received57 account appeals and reinstated43 accounts.

In Q2 2021, we deactivated7,238 distinct images, which comprised1,238,782 Pins, for violating this policy. We determined that a small handful of these distinct images, and their more than990,000 machine-identified matching Pins, were incorrectly deactivated, and we reinstated that content after spotting the error. Of the Pins that we believe were correctly deactivated,79% were never seen by users in this reporting period. We deactivated fewer than1% of Pins manually and more than99% with hybrid tools. We actioned5,383 user reports that resulted in a Pin deactivated for violating this policy. We also deactivated1,025 boards and292 accounts for violating this policy. We received33 account appeals and reinstated22 accounts.

We prohibit hateful content and the people and groups that promote hateful activities on Pinterest. Hateful activities include slurs and negative stereotypes, caricatures and generalizations, as well as support for hate groups and people promoting hateful activities.

We believe all people deserve a safe space to cultivate their interests and seek inspiration—regardless of their actual or perceived race, color, caste, ethnicity, immigration status, national origin, religion or faith, sex or gender identity, sexual orientation, disability or medical condition.

In Q1 and Q2 2021, we saw a relative decrease in boards and accounts deactivated compared to Q4 2020. We deactivated fewer Pins in Q2, and 74% of those Pins were seen by fewer than 100 users in that reporting period.

In Q1 2021, we deactivated2,487 distinct images, which comprised 8,823 Pins, for violating this policy. Of these Pins,70% were never seen by users in this reporting period. We deactivated30% of Pins manually and70% with hybrid tools. We actioned862 user reports that resulted in a Pin deactivated for violating this policy. We also deactivated665 boards and82 accounts. We received22 account appeals and reinstated13 accounts.

In Q2 2021, we deactivated3,418 distinct images, which comprised6,086 Pins, for violating this policy. Of these Pins,74% were seen by fewer than 100 users in this reporting period. We deactivated60% of Pins manually and40% with hybrid tools. We actioned1,948 user reports that resulted in a Pin deactivated for violating this policy. We also deactivated739 boards and126 accounts for violating this policy. We received23 account appeals and reinstated12 accounts. 

Our medical misinformation policy is one of several policies in our Community guidelines that prohibit misinformation and disinformation on Pinterest. This policy  prohibits medically unsupported health claims that risk a user’s health or wider public health and safety, including the promotion of false cures, anti-vaccination advice, or misinformation about public health or safety emergencies. We rely on information from nationally and internationally recognized institutions, including the CDC and WHO, to help us determine if content violates these guidelines.

Pinterest is deeply committed to combating health misinformation. As COVID-19 vaccines were made more widely available around the world, we deactivated content that violated our medical misinformation policy and worked closely with health experts to ensure we stayed up-to-date on the latest developments. We saw a relative increase in the number of Pins deactivated in Q2 2021, and 92% of these Pins were seen by fewer than 100 users in this reporting period.

In Q1 2021, we deactivated4,256 distinct images, which comprised11,097 Pins, for violating this policy. Of these Pins,74% were never seen by users in this reporting period. We deactivated48% of Pins automatically,12% manually and40% with hybrid tools. We also deactivated473 boards and35 accounts. We received7 account appeals and reinstated 5 accounts.

In Q2 2021, we deactivated4,869 distinct images, which comprised19,852 Pins, for violating this policy. Of these Pins,65% were never seen by users in this reporting period. We deactivated31% of Pins automatically,30% manually and39% with hybrid tools. We also deactivated462 boards and34 accounts for violating this policy. We received11account appeals and reinstated6 accounts.

Combating self-harm is a priority for us as we strive to ensure Pinterest plays a positive role in people’s lives. Content that displays, rationalizes or encourages suicide, self-injury, eating disorders or substance abuse isn’t welcome on our platform. This includes self-harm instructions, sensitive imagery, and suicidal thinking and quotes. 

Our ongoing partnership withSamaritans, an organization dedicated to reducing feelings of isolation and disconnection that can lead to suicide, continues to help the industry tackle self-harm content and make the internet a safer place for everyone. In 2019, wedeepened our relationship with the Samaritans by joining their newly formed industry-wide program. Partnerships like this help us support expert research and development within the field of mental health so that more people in need can find support, no matter what app or website they use. 

In Q1 and Q2, we continued investing in work to improve content moderation for self-harm content and provided support millions of times to those in need through ourcompassionate search experience.

In Q1 2021, hybrid deactivations resulted in more Pins deactivated, but fewer distinct images deactivated, than they did in Q2. More importantly, 99% of the Pins deactivated in Q1 were seen by fewer than 100 people in that reporting period. 

In Q1 2021, we deactivated2,945 distinct images, which comprised302,918 Pins, for violating this policy. Of these Pins,86% were never seen by users in this reporting period. We deactivated1% of Pins manually and99% with hybrid tools. We actioned1,066 user reports that resulted in a Pin deactivated for violating this policy. We also deactivated545 boards and79 accounts. We received13 account appeals and reinstated12 accounts.

In Q2 2021, we deactivated3,824 distinct images, which comprised81,444 Pins, for violating this policy. Of these Pins,88% were never seen by users in this reporting period. We deactivated10% of Pins manually and90% with hybrid tools. We actioned1,567 user reports that resulted in a Pin deactivated for violating this policy. We also deactivated828 boards and123 accounts for violating this policy. We received28 account appeals and reinstated25 accounts.

We want the inspiration and ideas on Pinterest to be high-quality and useful, so we deactivate spam when we find it. The goal of spammers is to make money, and the best way to do this is to spam at scale. It’s a numbers game: one million spam emails are much more effective than one spam email. The same kinds of spamming efforts can happen on any content distribution platform, including Pinterest. Platforms’ interactions with spammers are generally both adversarial and iterative with users who intentionally try to evade the system and continually update their techniques. 

At Pinterest, we use the latest in machine learning technology to build automated models that swiftly detect and act against spam of all kinds. We not only use the latest modeling techniques but also iterate on these models at regular intervals by adding new data and exploring new technical breakthroughs to either maintain or improve their performance over time to effectively address spam. Given the adversarial, iterative nature of fighting spam, content enforcement numbers may change quarter-to-quarter, especially after a large attack.

In Q1 2021, we deactivated336,821 distinct images, which comprised1,042,960 Pins, for violating this policy. Of these Pins,65% were never seen by users in this reporting period. We deactivated less than1% of Pins manually and more than99% automatically. We also deactivated 1 board and4,420,965 accounts. We received112,139 account appeals and reinstated84,541 accounts.

In Q2 2021, we deactivated118,054 distinct images, which comprised378,490 Pins, for violating this policy. Of these Pins,61% were never seen by users in this reporting period. We deactivated less than1% of Pins manually and more than99% automatically. We also deactivated3,104,408 accounts for violating this policy. We received80,624 account appeals and reinstated61,050 accounts.

This section provides insight into the volume of information and deactivation requests received from law enforcement and government agencies. 

Please note that this data encompasses requests from January through June 2021. For more information on how we respond to requests for account information, refer to ourLaw enforcement guidelines.

Pinterest receives legal requests from law enforcement and government agencies for Pinterest account information. We diligently review each request, and only produce data for those that meet the requirements of law and our policies. Our policy is to notify users of government requests for their information prior to disclosing, unless we are prohibited by law or in exceptional circumstances.

* Law enforcement requests such as wiretap orders, pen registers, trap and trace, and emergency disclosure requests.

** The account owner was notified before production.

* Law enforcement requests such as wiretap orders, pen registers, trap and trace, and emergency disclosure requests.

** The account owner was notified before production.

* Any national security letters and orders issued under the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act for user information.

We sometimes receive requests from government agencies to deactivate content on Pinterest that may be illegal in their country and/or a violation of ourCommunity guidelines. 

We review the requests to determine if the content identified violates ourCommunity guidelines. Our teams take action on violations, ranging from deactivating the content globally to restricting access to the content within the relevant country if it violates local law but does not violate our policies. 

Pinterest received a total of 7,884 requests from January to June 2021. We deactivated content for 5,396 of those requests for violating our Community guidelines and restricted content on 1,034 requests. Content for the remaining 1,454 requests was inactive by the time it was reviewed in response to the government removal request. This can happen when, for instance, the content was deactivated in response to a user report.

* Content violated our Community guidelines and was removed from the platform.

** Content was reported by a government agency but did not violate our Community guidelines and was restricted from appearing only in the country where the request originated, based on local law.

*** Content was no longer available on the platform by the time it was reviewed in response to the government removal request.

Pinterest does not tolerate child sexual abuse material (CSAM). We have a strict no-tolerance policy for any content—imagery or text—that exploits or endangers minors. Detecting and deactivating this content is extremely important to us and we work closely with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) to combat this type of activity.

Pinterest proactively identifies CSAM images and videos using matching tools including PhotoDNA and machine learning tools to detect additional possible CSAM. Our team of specialists is trained to identify and review CSAM, and was responsible for 890 CyberTipline reports to NCMEC from January to June 2021.

Creating the most positive space online doesn't happen by accident: It happens through proactive policy and product decisions. We have industry-leading positions on content safety that are informed by inputs and advice from outside experts, civil society and government. We also invest heavily in measures like machine learning technology to maintain a safe and positive space for the people on Pinterest. We’re proud of what we’re doing to keep Pinterest safe and to move the broader industry forward. 

Let’s create a safer, more inspired internet, together.

At Pinterest, our mission is to bring everyone the inspiration to create a life they love, and it’s our guiding light in drafting our content policies. Not everything on the internet is inspiring, so we have guardrails for what’s acceptable on Pinterest and what isn’t allowed. 

We’re committed to providing greater transparency into how we keep Pinterest safe and inspiring. In this transparency report, you’ll get insight into how many information and deactivation requests we received from law enforcement and government agencies between July and December 2020. We’ve reported onthis information twice per year since 2013.

But this year, we’re expanding the report to share more information. Now, our bi-annual transparency report will also include data on the actions we take to moderate user and merchant content on Pinterest beyond those requested by law enforcement, such as the number of policy violations and deactivations. This release specifically covers the actions we took under our policies between October and December 2020. We'll continue to iterate on this report going forward. 

Pinterest’s industry-leading policies and practices are something we’re proud of. But more importantly, they’re the right thing for the people on our platform. They help to keep Pinterest a more positive and inspiring place online—for example, our longstanding policy prohibiting medical misinformation, which also challenged the industry to go further. We want to advance the industry on these issues so that—together—we can create a more inspiring internet.

Pinterest’sCommunity guidelines are designed to keep our platform safe for all users. They govern what we do and don't allow on Pinterest, and all users must abide by them. 

We have additional guidelines formerchants andadvertisers to set clear expectations about what is and is not acceptable for product Pins and advertisements. We have especially high standards for safety for all audiences who use Pinterest: consumers, advertisers, creators, merchants and more. We believe you can't feel inspired if you don't first feel safe.

To help us cultivate a safe and inspired community, we develop and enforce content policies to ensure that our platform is a positive place for people to find inspiration for their next new recipe or home renovation. We work hard to identify and deactivate harmful content from our site, and our content policies and moderation practices are always evolving. 

We may block, limit the distribution of or deactivate content and the accounts, individuals and groups that create or spread that content, based on how much harm it poses. In the event that a user believes a deactivation was in error, Pinterest provides options to appeal the deactivation.

Every day, millions of people all over the world come to Pinterest to create, discover and save new ideas that are shared in Pins. To understand how we approach content moderation, it’s helpful to differentiate between two types of Pins: organic Pins and ads. OurCommunity guidelines apply to both.

Organic Pins include all Pins created and saved on Pinterest that are not promoted as ads. For example, this could include merchants’ product Pins, which aren’t always ads, and may appear organically to people who are searching for products on Pinterest. We have additional requirements, like disclosing shipping and return policies, formerchants and their product Pins. All types of organic Pins are included in this report.

Ads are Pins that advertisers have chosen to promote as ads on Pinterest. We have additional policies foradvertisers that set higher standards for the quality of ads. Because ad content is enforced differently than organic content, it is not included in this report.

People often ask: before a Pin is deactivated for violating policy, how many people saw it? In most cases, the answer is: not a lot. 

For an example, let’s look at Pins deactivated for medical misinformation during this reporting period. 85% of Pins that we deactivated for medical misinformation were actually never seen by users in this reporting period—even with more than 440 million people visiting Pinterest per month.

Reach of deactivated Pins, Oct–Dec 2020*

* Calculated based on the number of unique users that saw a policy-violating Pin between October and December 2020 for at least 1 second, before it was deactivated. Rows may not add up to 100% due to rounding.

Users can report any content they find objectionable by clicking on the three small dots on any Pin and hitting “Report Pin.” Once we confirm it’s a policy violation and take action on the reported content, we consider the report an actioned user report.

The total number of actioned user reports tells us a lot about the user experience on Pinterest. So does the number of reporters: less than 0.02% of monthly active users reported a Pin that resulted in a Pin deactivation in this reporting period. 

While the majority of actioned user reports concerned adult content, the number of users that reported that content represent a very small fraction of the people on Pinterest. More importantly, not a lot of people saw the adult content, regardless of whether it was deactivated due to a user report or another enforcement mechanism. In fact, 98% of adult content that was deactivated on Pinterest was seen by fewer than 100 people during the reporting period.

Actioned user reports that resulted in a deactivated Pin, Oct–Dec 2020

* For some policies, actioned user reports are not a useful metric, for instance because the primary enforcement mechanism involves processing reports in aggregate. For these policies, the reach of deactivated Pins is a more relevant indicator of the user experience.

There are more than 300 billion Pins on Pinterest, and each of those Pins also has an image associated with it. Just because two Pins show the same image doesn't mean that we count them as the same Pin within our systems, or even that the image came from the same source. 

This is important when it comes to content moderation: if we determine that the image in one Pin is policy-violating, our tools need to be able to detect and act on matching images amongst the billions of other Pins on Pinterest. So while we detect and deactivate a lot of Pins, those Pins comprise a much smaller number of distinct images. That’s why we’re sharing the number of deactivations for both distinct images and Pins. Each provides a different kind of insight into our moderation practices for this type of content. 

For example, we took proactive steps to moderate both new and pre-existing content leading up to the US election in November 2020. Those efforts included deactivating a lot of distinct images that violated our conspiracy theory policy. In doing so, we also deactivated the Pins that used those images.

Distinct image and Pin deactivations, Oct–Dec 2020*

* Does not include distinct images or Pins that were deactivated because they were on a board that was deactivated, or belonged to a user that was deactivated.

When people find Pins they like or want to come back to they save them to boards that they’ve created. Over time, people have created more than 6 billion boards. 

Pinterest deactivates boards if a predetermined amount of content on that board has been identified as policy-violating. We’re being intentional about not sharing specific numbers for this, because that information can be used to undermine our efforts at content moderation. The most important takeaways about board moderation are that Pinterest will deactivate boards that are determined to be policy-violating, and that when a board is deactivated, all the Pins on that board are also deactivated. 

Board deactivations, Oct–Dec 2020*

* Does not include boards that were deactivated because they belonged to a user account that was deactivated.

Think of “accounts” on Pinterest as “profiles” or, most often, individual users. If someone saves Pins and creates boards, that content becomes associated with their account. This is also true for business, advertiser, merchant and creator accounts. 

Any account may be deactivated for violating our policies. When a user is deactivated, all of their Pins and boards are also deactivated. That means that if you search for them or click on an old link to their profile, that profile won’t show up anymore. Their Pins won’t appear anywhere on Pinterest. And they won’t be able to access their own Pins or boards, either.

Account deactivations, Oct–Dec 2020

If people believe their accounts have been deactivated by mistake, they can follow an appeals process to have their accounts reinstated. We review appeal requests and grant the appeal if we decide we made a mistake, or in some cases to give people a second chance to abide by ourCommunity guidelines.

Account appeals and reinstatements, Oct–Dec 2020

We also process appeals for deactivated Pins and boards, and expect to include that data in reports in the future.

*Updated list on September 28, 2021 to reflect revised reinstatements figures.

This section provides insight into the volume of information and deactivation requests received from law enforcement and government agencies. 

Please note that this data encompasses requests from July to December 2020. For more information on how we respond to requests for account information, refer to ourLaw enforcement guidelines.

Pinterest receives legal requests from law enforcement and government agencies for Pinterest account information. We diligently review each request, and only produce data for those that meet the requirements of law and our policies. Our policy is to notify users of government requests for their information prior to disclosing, unless we are prohibited by law or in exceptional circumstances.

United States Jan–June 2020

United States Oct–Dec 2020

* Law enforcement requests such as wiretap orders, pen registers, trap and trace and emergency disclosure requests.

** The account owner was notified before production.

 

International Jan–June 2020

International Oct–Dec 2020*

* Law enforcement requests such as wiretap orders, pen registers, trap and trace, and emergency disclosure requests.

** The account owner was notified before production.

National Security Requests*

*National Security Request: Any national security letters and orders issued under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act for user information

We sometimes receive requests from government agencies to deactivate content on Pinterest that may be illegal in their country and/or a violation of ourCommunity guidelines. 

We review the requests to determine if the content identified violates ourCommunity guidelines. Our teams take action on violations, ranging from deactivating the content globally to restricting access to the content within the relevant country if it violates local law but does not violate our policies. 

Pinterest received a total of 4,078 requests from July to December 2020. We removed content for 3,684 of those requests for violating our Community guidelines and restricted the content on the remaining 394 requests.

Jan–June 2020

Jul–Dec 2020

* Content violated ourCommunity guidelines and was removed from the platform.

** Content was reported by a government agency but did not violate our Community guidelines and was restricted from appearing only in the country where the request originated, based on local law.

Pinterest does not tolerate child sexual abuse material (CSAM). We have a strict no-tolerance policy for any content—imagery or text—that exploits or endangers minors. Detecting and deactivating this content is extremely important to us and we work closely with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) to combat this type of activity.

Pinterest proactively identifies CSAM images and videos using matching tools including PhotoDNA and machine learning tools to detect additional possible CSAM. Our team of specialists is trained to identify and review CSAM, and was responsible for 1,794 CyberTipline reports to NCMEC from July to December 2020.

Creating the most positive space online doesn't happen by accident: It happens through proactive policy and product decisions. We have industry-leading positions on content safety that are informed by inputs and advice from outside experts, civil society and government. We also invest heavily in measures like machine learning technology to maintain a safe and positive space for the people on Pinterest. We’re proud of what we’re doing to keep Pinterest safe and to move the broader industry forward. 

Let’s create a safer, more inspired internet, together.

Q1 January - March 2019

Q2 April - June 2019

Q3 July - September 2019

Q4 October - December 2019

Non-US Government Information Requests

January - March 2018

April - June 2018

July - September 2018

October-December 2018

January - March 2017

April - June 2017

July - September 2017

October - December 2017

*Accounts notified means that the account owner was notified before production

*When Pinterest complies with a government request to remove content, we restrict that content from appearing only in the country where the request originated. That content will still be available to all other users.

January - March 2016

April - June 2016

July - September 2016

October - December 2016

January - March 2015

April - June 2015

July - September 2015

October - December 2015

Government Content Removal Requests: 0

United States Law Enforcement Requests; Number of accounts: 7

Warrant: 0 (0%); Protective Orders Obtained: 0

Subpoena: 7 (100%); Protective Order Obtained: 4

National security: 0

Other: 0

Requesting party & compliance

Federal: 2 (2 subpoenas); Compliance w/partial or full production: 100%

State/Local: MN (2), FL (1), IL (1), CA (1); Compliance w/partial or full production: 100%

United States Civil Requests: 0

Rest of World Requests: Australia (1); Number of accounts: 1 ; Compliance w/partial or full production: 0%

Government Content Removal Requests: 0

United States Law Enforcement Requests; Number of accounts: 19

Warrant: 3 (33%); Protective Orders Obtained: 2

Subpoena: 6 (67%); Protective Order Obtained: 1

National security: 0

Other: 0

Requesting party & compliance

Federal: 3 (2 warrants, 1 subpoena); Compliance w/partial or full production: 33%

State/Local: WI (2), MO (1), OH (1), GA (1), CA (1); Compliance w/partial or full production: 83%

United States Civil Requests: 0

Rest of World Law Enforcement Requests: Canada (1); Number of accounts: 3 ; Compliance w/partial or full production: 0%

Government Content Removal Requests: 0

United States Law Enforcement Requests; Number of accounts: 15

Warrant: 3 (43%); Protective Orders Obtained: 3

Subpoena: 7 (57%); Protective Order Obtained: 4

National security: 0

Other: 0

Requesting party & compliance

Federal: 4 (1 warrant, 3 subpoenas); Compliance w/partial or full production: 100%

State/Local: CA (1), PA (1), NJ (1), TX (1), AK (1), TN (1); Compliance w/partial or full production: 100%

United States Civil Requests: 3 ; Compliance w/partial or full production: 66%

Rest of World Requests: None; Number of accounts: 0 ; Compliance w/partial or full production: 0%

Government Content Removal Requests: 0

United States Law Enforcement Requests; Number of accounts: 19

Warrant: 4 (30%); Protective Orders Obtained: 3

Subpoena: 9 (60%); Protective Order Obtained: 6

National security: 0

Other:0

Requesting party & compliance

Federal: 4 (0 warrants, 4 subpoena); Compliance w/partial or full production: 75%

State/Local: MI (1), IL (1), MN (1), AZ (1), ID (1), WI (1), VI (1), PA (1), ND (1); Compliance w/partial or full production: 77%

United States Civil Requests: 0

Rest of World Requests: None; Number of accounts: 0 ; Compliance w/partial or full production: 0%

Government Content Removal Requests: 0

United States Law Enforcement Requests; Number of accounts: 7

Warrant: 4 (57%); Protective Orders Obtained: 2

Subpoena: 3 (43%); Protective Order Obtained: 1

Other: 0

National security: 0

Requesting party & compliance:

Federal: 1; Compliance w/partial or full production: 100%

State/Local: CA (2), FL (1), UT (1); NY (1) & WI (1); Compliance w/partial or full production: 83%

United States Civil Requests: 0

Rest of World Law Enforcement Requests:0

Government Content Removal Requests: 0

United States Law Enforcement Requests; Number of accounts: 5

Warrant: 3 (60%); Protective Orders Obtained: 0

Subpoena: 2 (40%); Protective Order Obtained: 0

Other: 0

National security: 0

Requesting party & compliance:

Federal: 0

State/Local: CA (2), FL (1), UT (1), OR (1); Compliance w/partial or full production: 100%

United States Civil Requests: 1 (100%); Compliance w/partial or full production: 100%

Rest of World Requests: 0