We take our role in protecting users from scammers very seriously and strive to take the fairest approach to content moderation.

If you encounter threats, insults or harassment, or some other threat to your safety, inform us by using the Report button. This button can be found in profiles, communities, posts, comments, photos, videos and stories. We review all reports without exception. 

VK uses a very effective hybrid method of moderation. We not only respond as quickly as possible to reports from users, social organizations, and government regulatory agencies, we conduct proactive internal monitoring as well. Our team carefully reviews every report and removes content that violates the VK Terms of Service or legal requests. We also block communities and profiles used by scammers to spread such content. Our response time is never more than an hour and is usually a matter of minutes.

Our automatic search and inappropriate content removal mechanisms are constantly improving. One example of this is our use of digital fingerprints to quickly locate harmful information. This allows us to prevent the quick distribution of fake news, as well as illegal or offensive content. We also respond to requests from the regulatory body, Roskomnadzor, in accordance with the laws of the Russian Federation. You can form the information field surrounding you yourself by only following profiles and communities that actually interest you. This way, you’ll only see content that is worthy of your time and avoid unwanted information.

Remember, content that isn’t in line with your opinions or tastes is not necessarily breaking any rules or laws. You can unfollow communities or content that you don’t like at any time so they don’t show up in your news feed again. In both your news feed and the Suggestions section, you can use the "Hide this post" button to indicate that you don’t like a particular post. This will lower the priority of similar content as well. Our neural network algorithms will take which posts you hide into account in order to suggest more relevant content to you.

If you encounter harassment or if someone is bothering you, you can add their profile to your blacklist. To do this, go to the user’s page and click on the “Block” button under their profile picture. After doing this, they won’t be able to visit your page or write you messages. If you fear for your life, you should contact the police. We do everything in our power to make VK a safe space to communicate, however when it comes to real crimes, only competent authorities have the ability to handle them.

You also have the ability to choose your level of privacy on VK and decide who can comment on your posts or even see your profile. You can read more about privacy in our Data Protection section. Spam is any sort of mass mailing that was sent to you without your consent. It’s not important how much spam the offender sends. What’s important is that the information doesn’t interest the recipient. Therefore, we ask that you only add people you that you actually know to your friend list and not create mass community mailings or send out community invitations en masse. You shouldn’t use your personal account for commercial purposes. It’s better to talk about and develop your business in a community.

We are continuing to limit the spread of commercial spam, harmful links and programs, fake contests, dishonest "charitable" money collections, fake advertisements and other activity which could be connected with fraud or security violations. In real time, our moderation service finds and blocks bot networks that spread spam and create unsolicited mass mailings. Also, we don’t allow users or communities to create fake profiles or artificially boost their number of followers, reposts, or likes.

Be sure to pay special attention to messages asking for help or containing prize offers. They might have been sent by scammers to gain your trust and get access to confidential information, such as your bank card data, passwords or details of your personal documents. Scammers can even pose as a friend or relative who is seemingly stuck in a bad situation.

Sometimes scammers create websites that look like VK in order to steal your password. This process of stealing information is called phishing. Remember that VK will never send you emails asking you to enter your account password or bank card details anywhere. If you receive any suspicious emails, make sure not to click on the links in them or respond to them. Check the browser’s address bar to verify that you are entering your VK login information on the real VK domain: vk.com.

You can find out more about how to protect your page in the "Security" community. VK regularly blocks communities that describe suicide methods, encourage suicide or self-harm, or promote school violence.

Our monitoring system uses a neural network to automatically look for and block dangerous content. All hashtags related to these topics automatically appear in this system as soon as they’re posted, therefore any attempt to launch a wave of information regarding suicide or any calls to violence will be instantly blocked. The monitoring system is constantly learning, and our algorithms are getting better every day.

In 2019, more than 6.7 million pieces of content promoting suicide or encouraging users to inflict self-harm were removed from VK. This includes text publications, videos, photos and audio files. More than 300 thousand unique profiles and 2 thousand communities were blocked for distributing such kinds of content as well.

Also in 2019, more than 290 thousand pieces of content promoting school violence were deleted. More than 6 thousand unique profiles and 300 communities were blocked for distributing this kind of content.

Any content that is connected with child exploitation, including pornographic materials and information regarding child trafficking or prostitution is quickly deleted. In 2019, more than 545 thousand pieces of content, as well as 17 thousand unique profiles and 3 thousand communities, were blocked for distributing this kind of content.
At first glance, 7 million pieces of content, created by people with ill intent and deleted by our moderation service, might seem large. But at the scale of VK, it’s not large at all. In a year, our users create billions of pieces of content. To automatically process this quantity, we use neural networks. The majority of dangerous content is deleted before anyone even sees it. Posts can always be reported manually as well. Usually, we process these reports within a few minutes if not quicker.

We quickly respond to reports from users, government regulatory agencies and social organizations, as well as block pages of users who use hashtags connected with "death groups". These efforts allow us to minimize the activity of such groups and hashtags. According to experts, frequent mentions of this theme in the media can often have the opposite effect and stoke the interest of teenagers who may be in difficult situations.

In 2018, as part of an initiative by the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, scientists from Saint Petersburg State University conducted research on the reasons behind destructive behaviors of underage individuals. They came to the conclusion that the internet has the least effect on the number of child suicides. Separately, it was reported that not a single case of suicide or unlawful actions conducted under the influence of the community managers of the so-called “death groups” has ever been identified.

Studies from the Russian Public Opinion Research Center and the Platforma Social Design Center have also shown that the internet does not have a significant impact on the incidence of child suicide or issues at schools. Such tragedies can be avoided through the help of professional psychological support and healthy family relationships. We try to strike a balance between freedom of expression and the safety of all VK users. In order to keep access to your account, avoid publishing inappropriate content and be respectful towards the people you’re chatting with.