Flag
A Flag in Salesforce is a user-initiated marker that brings attention to a piece of content or a record: an Experience Cloud community member reporting an inappropriate post for moderation review, a Chatter user flagging a feed item, a customer marking a Knowledge article as outdated, an admin tagging a record with a custom Flag field.
Definition
A Flag in Salesforce is a user-initiated marker that brings attention to a piece of content or a record: an Experience Cloud community member reporting an inappropriate post for moderation review, a Chatter user flagging a feed item, a customer marking a Knowledge article as outdated, an admin tagging a record with a custom Flag field. The platform supports several flagging mechanisms across products, all sharing the same core idea: surface something that needs human attention without taking action on it directly.
Flag mechanics differ by context. Experience Cloud moderation uses a built-in NetworkActivityAudit object to log community-member flags on feed items, comments, and files; moderators review the flagged content and take action (delete, hide, warn). Knowledge has Flag as Inappropriate and Flag for Review options that route to content owners or moderators. Other products use custom Flag fields (a checkbox on a Lead called Flag_for_Manager_Review__c) to drive list views, filters, and Flows. The common thread: flags are signals, not enforcement.
How flagging works across Salesforce products
Experience Cloud community moderation flags
Experience Cloud sites let community members flag inappropriate posts, comments, and files. The flagging UI is built into the feed component. Flags are logged in NetworkActivityAudit and routed to designated moderators (configured per site). Moderators review the flagged content in the Moderation Queue and take action: dismiss the flag, hide the content, delete it, or warn the user.
Knowledge article flagging
Knowledge articles support Flag as Inappropriate (community-side) and Flag for Review (internal-side). Flagging an article routes a notification to article owners or a Knowledge moderator. The flag captures the flagger, timestamp, and optional reason. Editors review and decide: revise, archive, or dismiss the flag.
Chatter post flagging (legacy)
Pre-Spring 2020 Chatter included built-in feed flagging: users could flag posts as inappropriate, and admins reviewed them. Salesforce retired this in favor of Experience Cloud moderation; legacy orgs may still have the old mechanism enabled. For modern feed moderation, use Experience Cloud moderation rules.
Custom Flag fields on objects
Beyond built-in flagging, admins commonly add custom checkbox fields named Flag_For_Manager_Review__c, Needs_Attention__c, Priority_Flag__c. These fields drive list views (show only flagged records), Flow conditions (notify manager when flagged), and reports (count flagged records per region). Pure metadata; no special platform behavior.
Moderation rules and automated flagging
Experience Cloud Moderation Rules can automatically flag content matching certain criteria: contains profanity, mentions banned URLs, comes from new users. Rules can flag, block, or replace content. Combined with member-initiated flags, automated rules handle the high-volume moderation cases.
The NetworkActivityAudit object
NetworkActivityAudit logs every community-moderation event including flags. Querying it surfaces flag activity over time: who flagged what, when, what action was taken. Compliance teams use this for audit; community managers use it for moderator performance reporting.
Flagging in mobile and Experience Cloud apps
Both the Salesforce mobile app and Experience Cloud apps support the same flagging mechanics. Community members on mobile can flag posts; the actions route to the same Moderation Queue. Mobile-specific UI surfaces the flag option in the post action menu.
How to enable and use Salesforce content flagging
Enabling flagging means configuring moderation in your Experience Cloud site, assigning moderators, and optionally adding custom flag fields for record-level use cases.
- Enable moderation in Experience Cloud
Setup, then Digital Experiences, then your site, then Workspaces, then Moderation. Enable the moderation features. Configure Moderation Rules for automated flagging.
- Assign moderators
Set the Moderate Experiences permission on the profiles or permission sets of users who should review flagged content. Moderators access the Moderation Queue.
- Configure Knowledge article flagging
For Knowledge, enable Flag as Inappropriate on the relevant data categories. Set the recipient (moderator or article owner) and the notification template.
- Add custom Flag fields where useful
On objects where users should flag records (Lead, Case, Account), add a custom checkbox Flag field. Build list views and Flows that use the flag.
- Train users on how to flag
Show users how to access the flag option in feed posts, articles, and records. Without training, flagging happens rarely.
- Monitor the Moderation Queue
Moderators check the queue regularly and act on flags. SLA expectations matter: stale flags create the impression that flagging is ignored.
Built-in community flagging for feed posts, comments, files.
Flag as Inappropriate or Flag for Review on Knowledge articles.
Admin-defined checkbox fields used to mark records for attention.
Automated flagging based on content criteria (profanity, URLs, user age).
- Flags do not block content. They surface it for human review. For automatic blocking, use Moderation Rules with Block instead of Flag.
- Moderation Queue requires active monitoring. Without an assigned moderator and an SLA, flags accumulate without action; the feature becomes performative.
- NetworkActivityAudit retention is limited. Compliance use cases may need data archival before the platform purges records.
- Custom Flag fields are just fields. They do not trigger any automation unless you build it; the field name suggests action but does not enforce it.
Trust & references
Straight from the source - Salesforce's reference material on Flag.
- Experience Cloud ModerationSalesforce Help
About the Author
Dipojjal Chakrabarti is a B2C Solution Architect with 29 Salesforce certifications and over 13 years in the Salesforce ecosystem. He runs salesforcedictionary.com to help admins, developers, architects, and cert/interview candidates sharpen their fundamentals. More about Dipojjal.
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