Brand safety on Pinterest

Pinterest is an industry leader on products and policies that aim to create a safer, more inclusive and more positive internet. We have especially high standards for safety because ultimately, we believe you can’t feel inspired if you don’t first feel safe. Our policies are designed to keep Pinterest safe for all users, including brands and advertisers. They govern what we do and don’t allow on Pinterest and all users must abide by them.

Over the last several years, we’ve made deliberate choices in engineering a more positive place online. We want everyone to see that Pinterest is an oasis away from the toxicity of social media. Other platforms optimize engagement via content that triggers you to keep you watching. We’re taking a very different approach, where we consciously choose to maximize our platform for positivity. That means prioritizing content that will help people feel better, feel more uplifted and take more real-world action in their lives.

We believe ads can play a big role in helping people create a life they love, which is why we want ads to be some of the best stuff people see on Pinterest. We use our policies to determine what ads we allow on Pinterest. When advertisers do show up on Pinterest, they benefit from the positive environment that our policies aim to create.

Our research shows that positive online environments have a halo effect on the brands that show up there—from awareness and sentiment to trust and purchase. 6 in 10 US adults agree they’re more likely to remember, feel positive about, trust and purchase brands that they see in positive spaces.¹

You’re the expert on what’s suitable for your business. So as we improve our controls, we’re also expanding yours. You can customize many settings within campaign settings, helping you manage where and how your brand shows up on Pinterest.

Inventory filters:
These filters help you understand what kinds of content will show near your ads. You can look specifically at exposure level for your campaigns and see how policies impact those settings. 

Placement opt-out:
Brands can tell us on which parts of the platform they’d like their ads to appear, ex: on home feed or search.

Keyword exclusion:
Brands can apply negative keywords to prevent their ads from serving on search queries that they consider to not be suitable to their brand.

Performance+ targeting opt-out:
Performance+ targeting uses signals from your ad to broaden your targeting and reach additional people on Pinterest who may be interested in or searching for relevant ideas. Brands can opt out of expanded targeting and limit the serving of their ads to only the targeting they provide—keywords and interests.

Third party brand safety measurement:
Our partnerships with IAS and DoubleVerify give you more options for brand safety reporting. These trusted partners can help you take a closer look at brand safety levels and how your campaigns score against industry standards and various brand safety and suitability categories.

One of our company values is to put Pinners first. As the company continues to grow, we’ll keep this focus to ensure that everyone using Pinterest has a positive, useful and inspiring experience. Our Pinner Promise tells people what to expect from us: tools, products and practices that optimize for their safety and well-being. 

Learn more

The safety of our community on Pinterest is made possible by the solidarity of our community. Pinners know that Pinterest is a more positive place on the internet, and they help us keep it that way. Pinners can use moderation tools to respond to community engagement as needed. All comments must follow our Community Guidelines. If someone posts a negative or unrelated comment on a Pin saved from your claimed website, there are a few things people on Pinterest can do.

In addition to moderation tools, a user can proactively report content they find objectionable. A report can be initiated when a user taps on the “...” found at the bottom right-hand corner of a Pin. This reporting mechanism triggers an internal ticket at Pinterest that is logged, triaged and reviewed appropriately. User reports complement our automated efforts to identify and remove policy-violating content. Once a user report is created, we process the report and take action if we find that the content does not follow our guidelines. We rely on a variety of measures, including proactive measures like machine learning technologies, to prevent, detect, and remove content that violates our guidelines. 

The most positive places online don’t happen by accident—they happen because of proactive policy and product decisions. Policy is a path to positivity. That’s why we’re proud that people call Pinterest an online oasis.² We have industry-leading positions on content safety, and we invest heavily in measures like machine learning technology to maintain it. We believe that for people—and brands—to feel inspired and be inspiring, they first have to feel safe.

Here are some of the industry-leading policy decisions we’ve made over the years:

2017
-Launched a health misinformation policy that blocks anti-vaccination content

2018
-Banned political campaign ads
-Began removing QAnon conspiracy content

2019
-Rolled out compassionate search for people seeking mental health support

2020
-Launched authoritative search results for COVID-19


2021
-Teamed up with the National Eating Disorder Association to support body positivity
-Received certification from the Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG) for our brand safety principles and policies
-Received accreditation from the Media Rating Council (MRC) for display Pin impressions and display Pin clicks

2022
-Expanded our Community and Advertising guidelines to prohibit all content with climate misinformation

2023
- Expanded on our teen safety and privacy tools 
- Launched industry-first body type technology as part of our Inclusive AI suite of tools and features  
- Founded the Inspired Internet Pledge to inspire other brands to take action 

2024
- Added third-party brand safety measurement solutions with trusted partners  
- Incorporated brand safety inventory filters directly in our ads management tools