Facebook said on Friday that it is prohibiting private firearm sales from being arranged on the popular social network and its photo-sharing service, Instagram, amid a White House-led effort to pass what President Obama has called “common sense” gun reform laws.
The tech titan’s decision won’t ban licensed licensed dealers from advertising or promoting sales to Facebook’s 1.6 billion monthly users, but instead will aim to ensure that account holders aren’t using the platform to make person-to-person deals done without background checks or oversight.
“Over the last two years, more and more people have been using Facebook to discover products and to buy and sell things to one another,” Monika Bickert, Facebook’s head of policy management, said in a statement.
“We are continuing to develop, test and launch new products to make this experience even better for people and are updating our regulated goods policies to reflect this evolution,” Ms. Bickert said.
In doing so, firearms are now classified in the same category as other contraband that Facebook prohibits from being bought or sold through its service, including alcohol, drugs and tobacco, much to the delight of gun control advocates who said the social networking service was becoming a hotbed for private sales.
Facebook “was unfortunately and unwittingly serving as an online platform for dangerous people to get guns,” Shannon Watts of Everytown for Gun Safety told Fox News.
“They were very, very open to our thoughts on policy and to the research we have been compiling,” added Ms. Watts, whose group has been lobbying for Facebook to update its regulated goods policy since it went into effect in 2014. “I think they definitely saw this was an issue, but an incredibly complicated issue. I think that’s why it’s taken two years.”
“Our continued relationship with Facebook resulted in today’s even stronger stance, which will prevent dangerous people from getting guns and save American lives,” she said in a statement to Reuters.
When he introduced executive actions early last month aimed at reducing gun violence, Mr. Obama said the White House was ramping up its efforts to police private firearm sales done over Internet sites where existing laws could easily be skirted.
“Those engaged in the business of dealing in firearms who utilize the Internet or other technologies must obtain a license, just as a dealer whose business is run out of a traditional brick-and-mortar store,” the White House said at the time.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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