Exclusive: Facebook says to prohibit private firearm transactions on its service

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Reuters

Fri Jan 29, 2016 5:44pm EST

Exclusive: Facebook says to prohibit private firearm transactions on its service

WASHINGTON


Facebook Inc (FB.O) plans to announce on Friday that it will begin prohibiting users from coordinating private sales of firearms on the online social network, a spokeswoman told Reuters.

Licensed retailers will still be able to advertise firearms on Facebook that lead to transactions outside of Facebook's platform, the spokeswoman said.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-facebook-guns-exclusive-idUSKCN0V72QB

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(Short article, no more at link.)

[BumRushDaShow]

1. Saw a NY Times Breaking banner and they have more details

The article also mentions Instagram -

Facebook is banning private sales of guns on its flagship social network and on its Instagram photo-sharing service, the company said late Friday.

President Obama, state attorneys general and gun safety groups had increased pressure on the company to stop the flow of Facebook posts and Instagram messages offering guns for sale, often without background checks.

Although Facebook has never been directly involved in gun sales, it has served as a forum for gun sales to be negotiated.

The ban applies to private, person-to-person sales of guns, though not to posts by licensed gun dealers. Facebook already prohibits people from offering marijuana, pharmaceuticals and illegal drugs for sale, and is updating its policy to include guns.

...

More: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/30/technology/facebook-gun-sales-ban.html

[MariaThinks]

2. good for them

[groundloop]

3. OMG the gun nuts are gonna' have a stroke (although this doesn't really do much)

[Lizzie Poppet]

6. Personally, I don't mind this a bit.

Dunno if I'm a "gun nut" or not, since that term seems to be quite variably defined. But I am a competition shooter...and I have no problem with this policy.

Partly, it's a case of "Facebook's service, Facebook's rules." They can prohibit whatever content they choose.

But more importantly, as someone who advocates universal background checks (and worked for such a law here in Oregon), this fits hand-in-hand with that advocacy. Internet purchases only allow no background check when they're in-state and the transfer is made in person...but it's still a loophole in states where no background check is required for private sales.

As you say, this won't do much. In-state private sales arranged through Facebook probably don't account for very many gun sales nationwide. Moreover, anyone who really wants to can dodge FB's prohibition much of the time, using the same sorts of codewords people use on Craigslist (which has prohibited weapon trading for years). But it's something...

[trillion]

4. Good!

[lark]

5. Yay for a ray of sanity!

Thank you FB.

[Politicub]

7. Good example of the private sector stepping up

where the federal government is falling short. It's too bad things like this don't happen more often.

Much of how Facebook is run is progressive. There are things the company does that I don't like - data mining, for one, and censoring photos of people nursing, as another example. But for the most part, the company has been supportive of the LGBT community and has progressive policies for its employees.

I'm sure you can find a lot that's wrong with Facebook. No organization is perfect. But they do a pretty good job of responding in a positive way.

[ManiacJoe]

8. It would help if federal law allowed private sellers

to do background checks via the NICS system.