Facebook bans private gun sales

Facebook bans private gun sales

In March 2014, Facebook took steps to limit sales of firearms including blocking minors from seeing posts about gun sales and trades and by requiring Facebook pages primarily used to promote the private sale of regulated goods and services to include language that reminds users to comply with laws and regulation.

At the time, an investigation by the technology blog VentureBeat found that adults and children were connecting on Facebook pages devoted to guns to buy, sell and trade firearms, sometimes in violation of federal and state gun laws.

Federal law enforcement sources told VentureBeat that Facebook, Instagram and other social media services were "emerging threats for unlawful gun transactions in the United States."

Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America and Mayors Against Illegal Guns, the group backed by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, had stepped up their demands for changes to Facebook's policies after gun arrests were tied to sales of guns facilitated through Facebook.

"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. 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," Monika Bickert, Facebook's head of product policy, said in an emailed statement.

Follow USA TODAY senior technology writer Jessica Guynn@jguynn

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