Facebook is banning the sales of guns on its network

Facebook Has Taken An Initiative To Stop Gun Sales On Its Platform And Instagram

With 1.6 billion monthly users, Facebook Inc. is known for offering its services to users endless of pet, baby pictures and food has turned into a very large gun market. Many of those were delivered through unauthorized dealerships- persons delivering one or few arms to purchasers.

The California based company is placing a ban upon the private sales of guns  on its picture sharing service provider Instagram and its well-known social platform, a measure taken to ensure that unauthorized gun transactions do not  take place.

The networking giant is already prohibiting people to offer illegal drugs, pharmaceuticals and marijuana for sale, and the organization stated on Friday that it has updated its policy related to different things including guns. The ban has applied to person to personal, private sales of guns. Gun clubs and authorized gun dealerships can still do posting on Instagram and still maintain pages on Facebook.

Although the networking giant wasn’t directly involved in the sales of guns, it has acted as a platform for the negotiation for sales of guns, without the background screening of people. The social platform is increasingly turning into an online trading webpage where gun transactions are facilitated.

The ban is thrusting Facebook into the center of a major social debate. Deliberations over the control of guns has been sparked after the massive shoot outs last year in the Californian district San Bernardino and Oregon based community college, amongst others. In the last month, President Barak Obama addressed to tighten enforcement of legislations regulating unauthorized gun sales.

Responding to that, some of the individual sellers stated they would start using websites such as Facebook, which permitted them to advertise sales of guns free of charge. Facebook stated it would depend on its users’ vast network for reporting any breaches of the new regulations, and would delete any post that breached the policy.

 Beyond that, the organization stated it could impose a ban on users or to a severe extent limit the means employed by them to post on the platform, relying on the severity and type of past breaches. If the enterprise believed that anyone’s life has been threatened, then it would cooperate with law enforcers on the case.

The company will also depend on user reports of gun transactions made by members through its private messaging facility Facebook Messenger. The company is playing host to a number of online groups catering to gun fans, with details and pictures of a gun being posted by members.

Some such as Florida’s Scott Schmoke stated the company is helping them to deliver some weapons on an yearly basis.