service: name: Meta
sector: Social
date: 20.12.2020
document: text: Facebook Ireland Limited has changed its name to Meta Platforms Ireland Limited. We've updated our Terms
of Service, Data Policy and Cookies Policy to reflect the new name on 4 January 2022. While our company
name has changed, we are continuing to offer the same products, including the Facebook app from Meta. Our
Data Policy and Terms of Service remain in effect, and this name change does not affect how we use or share
data. Learn more about Meta and our vision for the metaverse.
Terms of Service
For messaging, voice and video calling services included in Meta
Products, please click here for a contract summary and here for other
information required by the European Electronic Communications
Code.
Meta builds technologies and services that enable people to connect with
each other, build communities and grow businesses. These Terms govern
your use of Facebook, Messenger and the other products, features, apps,
services, technologies and software that we offer (the Meta
Products or Products), except where we expressly state that separate
terms (and not these) apply. These Products are provided to you by Meta
Platforms Ireland Limited.
We don't charge you to use Facebook or the other products and services
covered by these Terms. Instead, businesses and organisations pay us to
show you ads for their products and services. By using our Products, you
agree that we can show you ads that we think will be relevant to you and
your interests. We use your personal data to help determine which ads to
show you.
We don't sell your personal data to advertisers, and we don't share
information that directly identifies you (such as your name, email address
or other contact information) with advertisers unless you give us specific
permission. Instead, advertisers can tell us things such as the kind of

Return to top
1. The services we provide
Our mission is to give people the power to build community and bring the world closer
together. To help advance this mission, we provide the products and services described
below to you:
Provide a personalised experience for you:
Your experience on Facebook is unlike anyone else's: from the posts,
stories, events, ads and other content that you see in News Feed or our
video platform to the Facebook Pages that you follow and other features
you might use, such as Trending, Facebook Marketplace and search.
We use the data that we have – for example, about the connections you
make, the choices and settings you select, and what you share and do
on and off our Products – to personalise your experience.
Connect you with people and organisations that you care about:
We help you find and connect with people, groups, businesses,
organisations and others that matter to you across the Meta Products
you use. We use the data we have to make suggestions for you and
others – for example, groups to join, events to attend, Facebook Pages
to follow or send a message to, shows to watch and people you may
want to become friends with. Stronger ties make for better communities,
and we believe that our services are most useful when people are
connected to people, groups and organisations that they care about.
audience that they want to see their ads, and we show those ads to
people who may be interested. We provide advertisers with reports about
the performance of their ads that help them understand how people are
interacting with their content. See Section 2 below to learn more.
Our Data Policy explains how we collect and use your personal data to
determine some of the ads that you see and provide all of the other
services described below. You can also go to your settings at any time to
review the privacy choices that you have about how we use your data.

Empower you to express yourself and communicate about what
matters to you:
There are many ways to express yourself on Facebook and to
communicate with friends, family and others about what matters to you
– for example, sharing status updates, photos, videos and stories
across the Meta Products that you use, sending messages to a friend or
several people, creating events or groups, or adding content to your
profile. We have also developed, and continue to explore, new ways for
people to use technology, such as augmented reality and 360 video to
create and share more expressive and engaging content on Meta
Products.
Help you discover content, products and services that may interest
you:
We show you ads, offers and other sponsored content to help you
discover content, products and services that are offered by the many
businesses and organisations that use Facebook and other Meta
Products. Section 2 below explains this in more detail.
Combat harmful conduct, and protect and support our community:
People will only build community on Meta Products if they feel safe. We
employ dedicated teams around the world and develop advanced
technical systems to detect misuse of our Products, harmful conduct
towards others and situations where we may be able to help support or
protect our community. If we learn of content or conduct like this, we will
take appropriate action – for example, offering help, removing content,
blocking access to certain features, disabling an account or contacting
law enforcement. We share data with other Meta Companies when we
detect misuse or harmful conduct by someone using one of our
Products.

Use and develop advanced technologies to provide safe and
functional services for everyone:
We use and develop advanced technologies such as artificial
intelligence, machine learning systems and augmented reality so that
people can use our Products safely regardless of physical ability or
geographic location. For example, technology such as this helps people
who have visual impairments understand what or who is in photos or
videos shared on Facebook or Instagram. We also build sophisticated
network and communication technology to help more people connect to
the Internet in areas with limited access. And we develop automated
systems to improve our ability to detect and remove abusive and
dangerous activity that may harm our community and the integrity of our
Products.
Research ways to make our services better:
We engage in research to develop, test and improve our Products. This
includes analysing the data we have about our users and understanding
how people use our Products, for example by conducting surveys and
testing and troubleshooting new features. Our Data Policy explains how
we use data to support this research for the purposes of developing and
improving our services.
Provide consistent and seamless experiences across the Meta
Company Products:
Our Products help you find and connect with people, groups,
businesses, organisations and others that are important to you. We
design our systems so that your experience is consistent and seamless
across the different Meta Company Products that you use. For example,
we use data about the people you engage with on Facebook to make it
easier for you to connect with them on Instagram or Messenger, and we
enable you to communicate with businesses that you follow on
Facebook through Messenger.
Enable global access to our services:
To operate our global service, we need to store and distribute content
and data in our data centres and systems around the world, including
outside your country of residence. This infrastructure may be operated
or controlled by Meta Platforms, Inc., Meta Platforms Ireland Limited or
its affiliates.

Return to top
2. How our services are funded
Instead of paying to use Facebook and the other products and services that we offer, by
using the Meta Products covered by these Terms you agree that we can show you ads that
business and organisations pay us to promote on and off the Meta Company Products. We
use your personal data, such as information about your activity and interests, to show you
ads that are more relevant to you.
Protecting people's privacy is central to how we've designed our ad system. This means that
we can show you relevant and useful ads without telling advertisers who you are. We don't
sell your personal data. We allow advertisers to tell us things such as their business goal,
and the kind of audience that they want to see their ads (for example, people between the
ages of 18-35 who like cycling). We then show their ad to people who might be interested.
We also provide advertisers with reports about the performance of their ads to help them
understand how people are interacting with their content on and off Meta Products. For
example, we provide general demographic and interest information for advertisers (for
example, that an ad was seen by a woman between the ages of 25 and 34 who lives in
Madrid and likes software engineering) to help them better understand their audience. We
don't share information that directly identifies you (information such as your name or email
address that by itself can be used to contact you or identifies who you are) unless you give
us specific permission. Learn more about how Meta ads work here.
We collect and use your personal data in order to provide the services described above for
you. You can learn about how we collect and use your data in our Data Policy. You have
controls over the types of ads and advertisers you see, and the types of information we use
to determine which ads we show you. Learn more.
Return to top
3. Your commitments to Facebook and
our community
We provide these services to you and others to help advance our mission. In exchange, we
need you to make the following commitments:

1. Who can use Facebook
When people stand behind their opinions and actions, our community is
safer and more accountable. For this reason, you must:
use the same name that you use in everyday life;
provide accurate information about yourself;
create only one account (your own) and use your timeline for
personal purposes; and
not share your password, give access to your Facebook account
to others or transfer your account to anyone else (without our
permission).
We try to make Facebook broadly available to everyone, but you cannot
use Facebook if:
You are under 13 years old.
You are a convicted sex offender.
We've previously disabled your account for breaches of our
Terms or Policies.
You are prohibited from receiving our products, services or
software under applicable laws.

2. What you can share and do on Meta Products
We want people to use Meta Products to express themselves and to
share content that is important to them, but not at the expense of the
safety and well-being of others or the integrity of our community. You
therefore agree not to engage in the conduct described below (or to
facilitate or support others in doing so):
1. You may not use our Products to do or share anything:
That breaches these Terms, our Community
Standards and other terms and policies that apply to your
use of our Products.
That is unlawful, misleading, discriminatory or fraudulent.
That infringes or breaches someone else's rights, including
their intellectual property rights.
2. You may not upload viruses or malicious code, or do anything that
could disable, overburden or impair the proper working or
appearance of our Products.
3. You may not access or collect data from our Products using
automated means (without our prior permission) or attempt to
access data that you do not have permission to access.
We can remove or block content that is in breach of these provisions.
If we remove content that you have shared for breach of our Community
Standards, we'll let you know and explain any options that you have to
request another review, unless you seriously or repeatedly breach these
Terms or if doing so may expose us or others to legal liability; harm our
community of users; compromise or interfere with the integrity or
operation of any of our services, systems or Products; where we are
restricted due to technical limitations; or where we are prohibited from
doing so for legal reasons.
To help support our community, we encourage you to report content or
conduct that you believe breaches your rights (including intellectual
property rights) or our terms and policies.
We also can remove or restrict access to your content, services or
information if we determine that doing so is reasonably necessary to
avoid or mitigate adverse legal or regulatory impacts to Facebook.
3. The permissions you give us
We need certain permissions from you to provide our services:
1 Permission to use content that you create and share: Some

1. Permission to use content that you create and share: Some
content that you share or upload, such as photos or videos, may
be protected by intellectual property laws.
You own the intellectual property rights (things such as copyright
or trademarks) in any such content that you create and share on
Facebook and other Meta Company Products you use. Nothing in
these Terms takes away the rights you have to your own content.
You are free to share your content with anyone else, wherever you
want.
However, to provide our services, we need you to give us some
legal permissions (known as a ‘licence') to use this content. This is
solely for the purposes of providing and improving our Products
and services as described in Section 1 above.
Specifically, when you share, post or upload content that is
covered by intellectual property rights on or in connection with our
Products, you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-
licensable, royalty-free and worldwide licence to host, use,
distribute, modify, run, copy, publicly perform or display, translate
and create derivative works of your content (consistent with
your privacy and application settings). This means, for example,
that if you share a photo on Facebook, you give us permission to
store, copy and share it with others (again, consistent with your
settings) such as service providers that support our service or
other Meta Products you use. This licence will end when your
content is deleted from our systems.
You can delete content individually or all at once by deleting your
account. Learn more about how to delete your account. You
can download a copy of your data at any time before deleting your
account.
When you delete content, it's no longer visible to other users;
however, it may continue to exist elsewhere on our systems
where:
Immediate deletion is not possible due to technical
limitations (in which case, your content will be deleted
within a maximum of 90 days from when you delete it);
your content has been used by others in accordance with
this licence and they have not deleted it (in which case, this
licence will continue to apply until that content is deleted);
or
Where immediate deletion would restrict our ability to:
investigate or identify illegal activity or breaches of

investigate or identify illegal activity or breaches of
our Terms and Policies (for example, to identify or
investigate misuse of our Products or systems);
comply with a legal obligation, such as the
preservation of evidence; or
comply with a request of a judicial or administrative
authority, law enforcement or a government agency;
in which case, the content will be retained for no longer than is
necessary for the purposes for which it has been retained (the
exact duration will vary on a case-by-case basis).
In each of the above cases, this licence will continue until the
content has been fully deleted.
2. Permission to use your name, profile picture and information about
your actions with ads and sponsored content: You give us
permission to use your name and profile picture and information
about actions that you have taken on Facebook next to or in
connection with ads, offers and other sponsored content that we
display across our Products, without any compensation to you. For
example, we may show your friends that you are interested in an
advertised event or have liked a Facebook Page created by a
brand that has paid us to display its ads on Facebook. Ads like
this can be seen only by people who have your permission to see
the actions that you've taken on Meta Products. You can learn
more about your ad settings and preferences.
3. Permission to update software that you use or download: If you
download or use our software, you give us permission to
download and install updates to the software where available.
4. Limits on using our intellectual property
If you use content covered by intellectual property rights that we have
and make available in our Products (for example, images, designs,
videos or sounds that we provide, which you add to content that you
create or share on Facebook), we retain all rights to that content (but
not yours). You can only use our copyrights or trademarks (or any
similar marks) as expressly permitted by our Brand Usage Guidelines or
with our prior written permission. You must obtain our written permission
(or permission under an open-source licence) to modify, create
derivative works of, decompile or otherwise attempt to extract source
code from us.

Return to top
4. Additional provisions
1. Updating our Terms
We work constantly to improve our services and develop new features
to make our Products better for you and our community. As a result, we
may need to update these Terms from time to time to accurately reflect
our services and practices. We will only make changes if the provisions
are no longer appropriate or if they are incomplete, and only if the
changes are reasonable and take due account of your interests.
We will notify you (for example, by email or through our Products) at
least 30 days before we make changes to these Terms and give you an
opportunity to review them before they go into effect, unless the
changes are required by law. Once any updated Terms are in effect, you
will be bound by them if you continue to use our Products.
We hope that you will continue using our Products, but if you do not
agree to our updated Terms and no longer want to be a part of the Meta
community, you can delete your account at any time.

2. Account suspension or termination
We want Facebook to be a place where people feel welcome and safe
to express themselves and share their thoughts and ideas.
If we determine that you have clearly, seriously or repeatedly breached
our Terms or Policies, including in particular our Community Standards,
we may suspend or permanently disable access to your account. We
may also suspend or disable your account if you repeatedly infringe
other people's intellectual property rights or where we are required to do
so for legal reasons.
Where we take such action, we'll let you know and explain any options
you have to request a review, unless doing so may expose us or others
to legal liability; harm our community of users; compromise or interfere
with the integrity or operation of any of our services, systems or
Products; where we are restricted due to technical limitations; or where
we are prohibited from doing so for legal reasons.
You can learn more about what you can do if your account has been
disabled and how to contact us if you think that we have disabled your
account by mistake.
If you delete or we disable your account, these Terms shall terminate as
an agreement between you and us, but the following provisions will
remain in place: 3.3.1, 4.2-4.5.
3. Limits on liability
Nothing in these Terms is intended to exclude or limit our liability for
death, personal injury or fraudulent misrepresentation caused by our
negligence, or to affect your statutory rights.
We will exercise professional diligence in providing our Products and
services to you and in keeping a safe, secure and error-free
environment. Provided that we have acted with professional diligence,
we do not accept responsibility for losses not caused by our breach of
these Terms or otherwise by our acts; losses that are not reasonably
foreseeable by you and us at the time of entering into these Terms; and
events beyond our reasonable control.

4. Disputes
We try to provide clear rules so that we can limit or hopefully avoid
disputes between you and us. If a dispute does arise, however, it's
useful to know upfront where it can be resolved and what laws will
apply.
If you are a consumer and habitually reside in a Member State of the
European Union, the laws of that Member State will apply to any claim,
cause of action or dispute you have against us that arises out of or
relates to these Terms or the Meta Products ("claim"), and you may
resolve your claim in any competent court in that Member State that has
jurisdiction over the claim. In all other cases, you agree that the claim
must be resolved in a competent court in the Republic of Ireland and
that Irish law will govern these Terms and any claim, without regard to
conflict of law provisions.
5. Other
1. These Terms (formerly known as the Statement of Rights and
Responsibilities) make up the entire agreement between you and
Meta Platforms Ireland Limited regarding your use of our
Products. They supersede any prior agreements.
2. Some of the Products that we offer are also governed by
supplemental Terms. If you use any of these Products, you will be
provided with an opportunity to agree to supplemental terms that
will become part of our agreement with you. For instance, if you
access or use our Products for commercial or business purposes,
such as buying ads, selling products, developing apps, managing
a group or Page for your business, or using our measurement
services, you must agree to our Commercial Terms. If you post or
share content containing music, you must comply with our Music
Guidelines. To the extent that any supplemental Terms conflict
with these Terms, the supplemental Terms shall govern to the
extent of the conflict.
3. If any portion of these Terms is found to be unenforceable, the
remaining portion will remain in full force and effect. If we fail to
enforce any of these Terms, it will not be considered a waiver. Any
amendment to or waiver of these Terms must be made in writing
and signed by us.
4. You will not transfer any of your rights or obligations under these
Terms to anyone else without our consent.
5. You may designate a person (called a legacy contact) to manage
your account if it is memorialised. Only your legacy contact or a

y
y y
g
y
person who you have identified in a valid will or similar document
expressing clear consent to disclose your content upon death or
incapacity will be able to seek disclosure from your account after it
is memorialised.
6. These Terms do not confer any third-party beneficiary rights. All of
our rights and obligations under these Terms are freely assignable
by us in connection with a merger, acquisition or sale of assets, or
by operation of law or otherwise.
7. You should know that we may need to change the username for
your account in certain circumstances (for example, if someone
else claims the username and it appears unrelated to the name
that you use in everyday life). We will inform you in advance if we
have to do this and explain why.
8. We always appreciate your feedback and other suggestions about
our products and services. But you should know that we may use
them without any restriction or obligation to compensate you, and
we are under no obligation to keep them confidential.
Return to top
5. Other Terms and Policies that may
apply to you
Community Standards: These guidelines outline our standards regarding the content that
you post to Facebook and your activity on Facebook and other Meta Products.
Commercial Terms: These Terms apply if you also access or use our Products for any
commercial or business purpose, including advertising, operating an app on our Platform,
using our measurement services, managing a group or a Page for a business, or selling
goods or services.
Advertising Policies: These policies specify what types of ad content are allowed by
partners who advertise across the Meta Products.
Self-serve Ad Terms: These Terms apply when you use self-serve advertising interfaces
to create, submit or deliver advertising or other commercial or sponsored activity or
content.

Facebook Pages, Groups and Events Policy: These guidelines apply if you create or
administer a Facebook Page, group or event, or if you use Facebook to communicate or
administer a promotion.
Meta Platform Terms: These guidelines outline the Policies that apply to your use of our
platform (for example, for developers or operators of a platform application or website or if
you use social plugins).
Developer Payment Terms: These Terms apply to developers of applications that use
Facebook Payments.
Community Payment Terms: These terms apply to payments made on or through Meta
Products.
Commerce Policies: These guidelines outline the Policies that apply when you offer
products and services for sale on Facebook.
Meta brand resources: These guidelines outline the policies that apply to use of Meta
trademarks, logos and screenshots.
Music guidelines: These guidelines outline the policies that apply if you post or share
content containing music on Meta Products.
Live Policies: These policies apply to all content broadcast to Facebook Live.
Messaging services terms relevant for EU, EEA and UK users: terms applicable to the
messaging, voice and video calling services included in Facebook Products are
listed here and here in accordance with EU rules.
Date of last revision: 20 December 2020