Above are the recently leaked guidelines for Facebook censors regarding images of guns posted on Facebook. These are the guidelines listed under “threat.” Notice the category “Expressing desire to purchase” from “no intent stated.”

The mandate: remove. So, If you you post an image of a gun with a caption like “I want one of these,” Facebook will deep-six the post. heatst.com rightly drew attention to this policy, and asked Facebook WTF . . .

Heat Street invited a Facebook spokesman to comment on the policy, but could not get a straight answer. Despite repeated requests, a spokesman would only say, enigmatically, that “context is extremely important”.

The vast majority of gun owners are peaceful, the vast majority of gun purchases do not end in any crime or violence.

But Facebook is, effectively, treating gun ownership as an inherent threat.

Though imperfect, the leaked documents show that on most topics Facebook is at least trying very hard to take a nuanced approach, and limit unjust censorship.

On the issue of guns, however, Facebook appears to have a massive blind spot.

Now tell us something we don’t know.

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76 COMMENTS

  1. Zuckerman runs his page his way. Not yours. He doesn’t like guns and caters to antis
    It’s why I don’t Facebook

    • It’s the same way Jack runs Twitter. They’re both a couple of authoritarians, but they’re behaving as such on property they own. (Not that we’re not free to call them out on their bigotry, hypocrisy, and authoritarianism.)

      • Never knew the policy. Actually it’s better than I thought it would be.

        It’s not just guns but many other legal things. Their site, Their call. I got my own sites and run them how I want so …get off My lawn.

      • Except that they’re no longer sole owners; both Facebook and Twitter are publically traded companies.

        So what? You can buy a share, attend the annual meeting and demand a say. How far you’ll get is debatable, of course.

        • Depends on the amount of stock you own…..the more you own the more you can dictate how things are ran……

        • Except Zuck of facebook, and Evan Spiegel, of Snapchat, have structured the companies so that no matter how the shares are distributed, they remain lords and complete commanders of their platforms.

    • Good thing they don’t run a bakery that won’t do cakes for gay activsts’ nuptials.

      • Exactly. Some little mom-and-pop store is “public” and can’t discriminate but FB is Zuck’s baby and he can do whatever he wants. Well, as long as it’s anti-gun and censoring “hate speech” from the Right. Okay, sure. If the Left didn’t have double standards they wouldn’t have any standards at all.

        • Exactly.

          This entire conservative, “eh, it’s private property, whatever” ethos ignores the war we’ve had enacted against private businesses by progressive interests. If we DON’T push back for equal regulation and ugly things, then things will get worse for us unless we apply the same standards Masterpiece bakery has applied to them.

          This is war. Refusing to engage on all fronts is tantamount to admitting defeat.

    • Actually, like all billionaires Zuckerberg is a bit of a paranoid gun nut. He, like other mega wealthy civilians, maintain multiple hired gun men. Each one of them keep multiple automatic weapons. He just doesn’t believe little people should have guns.

      Anyone reading this should avoid Faceberg at all costs. Don’t be one of Zucks ‘dumb fucks’ (his words, look it up)

  2. Facebook has really gone to shit in the past few years. Every time liberal get the upper hand of something good it spirals straight to hell. I wish a real conservative would come up with something similar that I could migrate to once it opened and I would tell FB to kiss my ass.

    • Huge no on Facebook. And Twitter. And Snapchat. And Instagram.

      Grown-ass men do not belong on this shit. Kids and attention-whoring women are okay.

      • /Draws more notes in the margin of his 5th-hand copy of ‘man book’.

        Bollocks, my name is Nigel so I’m never going to be real man anyway. 😉

      • I don’t use it much and there are certainly useless ways to engage with Facebook, but I hooked up with some old friends and have done a lot of shooting as a result of Facebook. You’re spouting some irrational, hipster-ass BS right there. A convenient way to get in touch with people you otherwise wouldn’t? BURN IT WITH FIRE, I SAY!!!

  4. I might be the only person under 35 to not have Facebook, but that’s my solution.

    No Facebook, no cry (about Facebook).

    • The only reason I made a fb account was when my wife and i went out of country a few years ago it was an easy way to share a couple pictures and communicate with multiple people back home at once. Since then I go on about once every 4-5 months just because. I should just delete the dumb thing and rejoin your honorable ranks.

        • There was, they just made it difficult. I got rid of mine years ago. The rules were that you request discontinuation and then you cannot go back onto your site/account for 2 weeks. If you did, your account would continue. Of course they still have and own anything I put on it but its not visible to the public anymore.

          Not sure if they still do it this way so your mileage may vary.

        • Jhon,

          Run a Google search for photos that you know used to be on your FB page, using both your name and terms you used to tag or caption the photos. Click the “Image” tab in the Google search, and see if any of your old photos from your “deleted” FB page show up.

          I know several people who’ve done this and were very surprised by the outcome.

    • nope, 32 and no Facebook. they permanently deleted my account and anything to do with my name, New email address still gets deleted so I just stopped trying. no loss, TTAG is all the social gathering I need.

      • They deleted your account for you?

        What did you do, post like facts and logic while telling people who had feelz that no one gives a shit about their feelz?

    • No, you are not.

      In fact, it has a knack of alienating antis just the same, because even worst hoplophobes dislike unwieldy ergonomics, and have their privacy concerns.

  5. Note that posting a photo of a firearm and stating it was purchased for personal defensive use would probably get the image pulled, based on the bottom cell of the left column.

  6. But, your’e missing out on all those great recipes from your cousins and pictures of people you never heard of.

  7. I once saw Zuck ask a beggar outside Whole Foods what kind of cake he liked, and then go get him a slice of it. Hoplophobe or not, he was a better citizen than I was that day.

    • That doesn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things…. I’m sure Hitler kissed a baby or two while he was gaining power.

      And NO, I’m not comparing Zuck to Hitler so nobody even needs to start whining.

      • I guess it’s everyone’s right to interpret things the way they want to.

    • So in other words little marky is a firm believer of the motto “Let them eat cake.”

  8. Facebook is an inherent threat to so many things on so many levels.

    So….Remove.

  9. Seriously?!? I’m on literally dozens of FB gun groups with a kajillian pics of guns posted. Do I post pics? Nope but I’m certain TTAG gets tracked. Maybe my son the DoD spy has some insight(lol). And I completed a gun transaction today.Tell me my 4473 isn’t in a deep dark vault. Hell Chip uses his real name…a serious non-FB thing needs to happen. I’m old and don’t care…

    • I use Facebook as a private contact medium and a way to keep up on (mostly gun and car) groups I specifically choose to keep up with. People I know are easy to reach there and the un-follow button is an easy way not to be force fed the recipes and like/share garbage that Facebook is over saturated with. Zuck can run it however he wants as far as I’m concerned and I’ll still make my contacts and do business with other gun guys just the same on and off of FB.

      If it weren’t for Facebook I wouldn’t bother with TTAG anymore. The e-mail deluge was too much to wade through every day. Scrolling past the topics on my FB page is easier to pick and choose which articles or reviews I want to see without loading yet another page full of graphic heavy advertising and pop-ups(slow internet).

      If Zuck could see my feed he’d probably shit his britches. Gas guzzling ’60’s Galaxie and C10/C20 truck groups, Gun groups of multiple kinds and some good lookin’ women(some with guns even!!!) to boot….. It amuses me to see my feed look like it does on what I consider HIS site…

  10. Any comment from Facebook on the authenticity of this document?

    I don’t see how the grid layout shown here would make any sense to a Facebook agent.

    There are plenty of gun pages and groups on Facebook. Their posts aren’t getting removed.

  12. Interesting. If there is an actual threat to humans, their policy is simply “remove.”

    Doctors, psychiatrists, psychologists and lawyers are all compelled by law to break otherwise inviolable privileged conversations to disclose if their patient / client intends to harm someone.

    Why is Facebook exempt?

    How many nutcases have expressed their intent to go harm people and simply had the evidence conveniently removed by Facebook?

  13. But they don’t have the capability to stop/delete videos of people being killed on their live Facebook streams. How screwed is that!!

    • Well, Livestream suicides get them lots of hits and hits lead to more ad revenue than pictures of anything that could possibly save a life.

      In other words, that’s where the money is!

      What are you, a commie? /;-)

  14. To a certain extent, I cannot blame them. If a gun sold through a Facebook posting was used to kill someone, the victims family would certainly sue Facebook for millions of dollars. Might not get it, but could with a jury of morons..

    • And their HQ is in California. If someone sells a deadly “high-capacity” assault magazine or MSR through Facebook, can the state prosecute Facebook and/or the seller claiming that the sale essentially took place in CA?

  15. “You can buy a share, attend the annual meeting and demand a say. How far you’ll get is debatable, of course.”

    Well, you can certainly buy a share and attend the annual meeting. However, FB’s share structure keeps Zuckerberg firmly in control of the company, regardless of how other shareholders vote. So how far you’ll get is not debatable. You’ll get precisely nowhere.

    • No, I’m not. I refuse to use his site or any other non-forum social media sites. I don’t like people enough to voluntarily spend my free time interacting with those I do not consider close friends.

  20. Bitching about Facebook’s policies being anti-gun is like complaining that water is wet or that sandpaper is abrasive. RF, you run TTAG in a certain way, deleting posts that don’t meet certain criteria. Your site, your rules.

    Zuckerberg is a dyed-in-the-wool progressive social justice warrior, and he runs his site accordingly. His site, his rules. There are only two valid options here: accept it and use Facebook, or don’t accept it and don’t use Facebook.

  21. 15 million CCW holders in the U.S., if we were a threat I think you would know by now. And we didn’t murder anyone yesterday.

    • Like the evil (D) we could just be biding our time, poaching the frog, etc., etc.

      They want to break this sh_t open on their timetable, we’re working to beat them to it. . .

  22. Not surprising. Even if you pay Facebook money, any post with a firearm is usually placed under harsh scrutiny.

    On my blog I did a post about helping each other out in times of need, i.e. us gun owners have to stick together, and sometimes we gotta “be that guy” and step up to help a friend who might be considering suicide via using his firearm, i.e. make sure he can’t get at his gun.

    I made sure my post was free of ads and affiliate links to Brownells and Lucky Gunner, and the only link was to the Suicide Hotline.

    I linked it on Facebook and put some sponsor money on it. Facebook took 72 hours to approve the promotion and I got a horrible return on it, with the reach being far lower than the estimate…if you do ads on Facebook, it tells you your estimated reach before you commit. “This post will reach 1000-5000 people if you put $10 behind it”

    It didn’t even reach 1000.

    So not only are they placing organic posts under harsh scrutiny, they are placing paid posts under harsh scrutiny as well. Though for guns, we’re a drop in the Facebook revenue bucket. A musician will spend $2000 per post on FB all day every day, and it gets approved in a minute. Gun stuff? Forget about it.

    Maybe my holster guy is right, word of mouth is still best for us.

  23. Zukerman and all gun-phoebes are Paranoid Delusional!!! And well they should be for what they want to do to AMERICA, tha Greatest Nation Evah

    Ayuh!

  24. I think people are getting overly upset about this. I believe this edict by Facebook is to prevent private sales from be arranged via Facebook.

  25. Facebook is shit, but the intent seems to be targeting “Want to buy” posts where people go on and ask for someone to sell them a gun.

  26. Sh*tcanned Facebook/Instagram. It was really liberating. I mean, what do people expect from someone who exploited photos of women so frat dudes can judge who is hot or not. Not saying that is bad by internet standards… but people idolize these tech giants like they are gods or something. Mark Zuckerburg and that Apple guy who just died are part of the intellectual crowd that movies are made after. In real life they are a bunch of nerds. These type of people curse the republic that facilitated their fortunes. Now we have a nation of zombies that aren’t paying any attention to the rug that is being pulled out from underneath them. Most of the internet browsing I do is 2a related nowadays. I am not faulting everyone who is using social media, but growing up on the wrong side of the tracks so to speak- has taught me not to get caught slippin

  28. A few years ago I accidently found myself signed up for Facebook. The first thing that happened was that there were people I didn’t know, wanting to be my “friend”
    That was the end of that! Now I do “Buttbook” so all those people can kiss my ass!

  29. Bull SHIT Facebook is trying to limit unjust censorship. I was literally suspended from Facebook fifteen minutes ago for 30 days over an argument about the dropped Trump civil lawsuit last November. I’ve had my account blocked several times, once for posting a “nude” picture of my DOG. Facebook makes no bones about how they censor conservative voices. There is no appeal. There is ZERO logic or integrity behind it.

    I have reported multiple personal threats made against my person and Facebook has UNIVERSALLY informed me that those threats are “Not against our terms of service.” But I call someone a liar for posting a news report they know is false and *I* am the one suspended for a month.

    Facebook is doing their utmost best to remove or eliminate conservative voices.

  30. What I don’t get is, all of the firearms, and accessories companies that want you to “like” them on Facebook. I can’t like them or enter their many contests. I am not on Facebook, and I never will be.
    Why can’t the arms manufacturers see that they are supporting enemies (Facebook, or as I call them, Assface) to their very existence?

  31. I would contend that these should be pretty uncontroversial. Facebook has for some time said you can’t use its service to buy or sell guns. Your interpretation of “expressing desire to purchase” is pretty strained. I would read that as “Man, I really want one of these” is ok but “I’d take one of these of your hands…” or “wtb!!!” is not. We don’t know their intent or how that’s interpreted by the censors. It’s fine to ask them, but hold the outrage since you have no idea what they’re actually doing.

  33. Hmmmm…. I post a LOT of firearms-related stuff, including photos of guns on Facebook. I have posted dozens upon dozens (maybe hundreds by now) of links to DGUs, with the preface of, “From the Files of It Never Happens…”

    I regularly advocate for the 2nd Amendment (among other Constitutional Rights).

    I regularly engage in rather spirited political debates… I mean SPIRITED. (I stand on the conservative / libertarian side.)

    I have never been deleted, censored, put in “time out,” or banned. Not once… over the course of many, many years.

    YMMV.

  34. I’m waiting for Faceboob to go after rock collectors next; especially owner of the eeeevil ‘A Salt Rock’.

  36. Can’t do or say this or that about guns but you can FACEBOOK LIVE yourself KILLING others and it’s Ooooookkaaayyyyyyy

    EXPLETIVE DELETED

  37. Neither my wife nor I have had a FB account for years now. Never will. It’s a slime ball Liberal hole, and we won’t support it in any way.

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