Facebook is going to bar private sales of guns on its social congregation platform while Instagram embraces ban on photo-sharing service for the same purpose. The move has been aimed to protect random use on unlicensed gun transactions.
Facebook has announced on Friday updating its policies that include gun control phenomenon. However, its users have already started to experience prohibition on selling marijuana, pharmaceuticals and illegal drugs.
According to The New York Times, Facebook is not directly involved in selling gun. It has served as a media for gun sales on negotiations, without checking people's background. With 1.6 billion monthly visitors, the social media has appeared as one of the largest marketplaces for guns along with versatile range of goods around the globe.
Discussions over gun controls have been triggered after the mass shooting incidents last year in San Bernardino, California and a community college in Oregon. President Obama's efforts on tighter enforcement of laws controlling unlicensed gun sales prompt some individual sellers to conduct promo campaigns using the popular media site as a platform. In a separate gun violence incident, Brian Harleman, an Ohio resident, has shot- wounded his ex-girlfriend and killed ten year old daughter before committing suicide in 2014. The shooter has allegedly bought the weapon from an unlicensed gun sale on Facebook. The fact revelation has attracted huge debate across all quarters which force the social site to adopt anti firearms stunt. Facebook's move to curb person to person gun sales is believed to exert immense influence on enacting safer gun policy countrywide. The social site members are predicted to acknowledge incredibly stronger gun control measures to be implemented by the US. People have been using the social hub over the last two years to find, purchase and sell products amongst the users. So its aim is to develop, test, and launch new products to make the system even better for people through updating the regulations on goods policies, reports Mashable while narrating a statement of Monika Bickert, Facebook's head of product policy. Both buyers and sellers in Facebook and Instagram have been urged to comply with the local regulations. Besides, they have been limiting posts exchanging ideas over the sale of arms above the adult age bar of 18 years since 2014. A message warning the members regarding compliance of relevant laws and regulations will be blinked to the authors of such posts. The Verge reports, In practice, it may not become possible to shun firearms purchases on Facebook from start to finish. But the company intends to maintain a distance itself from private sales altogether. Like other online marketplaces, Craigslist and ad networks, Google's Ad Words , Facebook also forbids advertisers from promoting dangerous weapons. Facebook's recently updated policy will closely be aligned with the company's current regulations on advertisements and sales of regulated goods aiming to curb gun sales on the site. Promoting regulated items now attracts a legal notice reminding users to comply with applicable laws.
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