(courtesy facebook.com)

“Facebook users now have the option to do what they couldn’t when the company announced it was banning the sale of guns and ammunition through the site earlier this year,” forbes.com reports, “report suspected sales. “The social media giant recently rolled out a new feature [on its “report problems” widget] that allows users to flag for removal posts that appear to be ‘describing the purchase or sale of drugs, guns or regulated goods.'” Wait? Regulated goods? In modern America, what goods aren’t regulated? Anyway, that’s not the wording on the screen I found (as above). According to FORBES — who’ve been hammering this story for months — it’s too little too late . . .

The option comes more than three months after Facebook first announced the ban in January, following weeks of complaints from advocates who have taken it upon themselves to police the site by reporting instances of gun sales and groups dedicated to buying and selling guns. Previously, advocates had to report suspected sales as “harassment” or as a “credible threat of violence,” options that aren’t always clear and could make it more difficult for members of Facebook’s content review team to distinguish banned content.

The move figures to boost Facebook’s enforcement of its ban on gun sales, which relies entirely on user reports. Numerous volunteers affiliated with gun violence prevention groups, including Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, told FORBES they first noticed the option to report gun sales earlier this month. Some said they received notifications that groups they had reported had been removed, only to later find the groups back up on the site.

“For a while it was fun – like popping shrink wrap bubbles,” said Charlie Galliher, one of the hundreds of advocates for closing the so-called ‘private sale’ loophole who have flooded Facebook with reports of suspected gun sales in recent months. “I regret not confirming they actually were down.”

Ah, the joys of degrading and destroying Americans’ natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms — from the comfort of your own living room! As FORBES points out, a lot of Facebook gun sales pages have gone private, which keeps the antis’ noses out of their business. Which is banned on Facebook. Private gun sales, not the antis. That would be wrong!

Again, I reckon it’s only a matter of time before Facebook pulls the plug on all firearms-related pages. In fact, they’re already marginalized. A survey of the gunblogosphere proves that Mark Zuckerberg’s minions have changes their sharing algorithm for gun-related contents, reducing gun blogs’ Facebook traffic by 25 to 50 percent. Or more. A bunch of prominent bloggers (including TTAG) have banded together to take action (with the help a certain firearms friendly Senator). Watch this space. Or TTAG’s Facebook page. But preferably here.

 

49 COMMENTS

  1. OK, FB users: Start reporting all manner of stuff. They just invited you to do so.

    • The wording Facebook uses in their report widget says “This post describes buying,” so be sure to hit any anti post describing “Internet Sales,” “The gunshow loophole,” etc. We can’t be sure who is reading their pages and getting ideas on how to buy guns. We must do it… “for the children”.

    • Californians should all report Gavin Newsom’s (and anyone else) website daily.
      Do it while having your morning coffee.
      Alternate which taboo it is engaging in.
      Create multiple email accounts and facebook accounts and deluge them.

    • You don’t even need to do that (lie). 80% of the posts on FB can be interpreted as being against those rules. Just flood them with technically legitimate flags.

      Fat guy eating a cheeseburger? That man is clearly a danger to himself. Flagged.

      Auntie Ginny posting about needing an aspirin after a day with the kids? Drugs, Alex. Flagged.

      Someone posted something micro-aggressive that triggered you? “It’s something else.”

    • I just reported Mom’s Demand Action because their group page “harasses me or someone I know.”

      Hey, this is fun! Not like popping bubble wrap, more like stepping on cockroaches.

      • “I just reported Mom’s Demand Action because their group page “harasses me or someone I know.”

        Ain’t that the truth. Make sure to get those CSGV knuckleheads too, they are always spouting about their violent Jihad against civil rights and the Constitution.

  2. Thank god, our society is finally safe.

    I thought we weren’t going to survive. How ever did we get by all these years, I do not know.

    We can all sleep peacefully tonight, knowing no guns are being sold on facebook.

  3. Sweet, now i have a good category for reporting all those mda posts yammering about ubcs.

  4. Ok, first off, it doesn’t say “regulated products” it says “adult products”

    Which I guess means it’s OK to sell puppies but not adult dogs. Anyhow, Forbes got it wrong.

    That aside, I like the prior suggestions as to how to sabotage this.

  5. “A bunch of prominent bloggers (including TTAG) have banned together to take action…”

    You have (been) banned together?
    Your have banded together?
    You have banned together Facebook?
    I am sooo confused!

  6. Ya’ think THIS will convince conservatives suckerboy isn’t anti-republican,2A rights and pro-commie? But he had a meeting…

    • Some meetings are simply opportunities for someone to administer a sunshine enema while they continue looking for a rock to bash your skull in.

  7. “A bunch of prominent bloggers (including TTAG) have banned together to take action…”

    Please tell me that you have -banded- together and are not promoting more banning.

  8. Facebook is for attention seeking women and weak men. I don’t want to hear “it’s how I keep in contact with family/friends” that’s what phones and cars are for. All of you who have Facebook pages are guilty of supporting an anti-gun organization. It’s like mailing a support check to Bloomberg.

    • It has become and important marketing tool for business, especially small businesses. Without a facebook presence sales are lost.

      • My buying habits are still the same whether a store is on facebook or not. The main determinant of whether or not I decide to patronize them is still the same: are they an interesting new shop I find one day without clickbait and online ads leading me there? And if so, do they have a well-designed homepage rather than a poor replacement that may or may not be a crappy FB page?

      • Yes but you can’t control it. So really, all these people crying about should really go to another service, or even better, start a competitor. That’s the glory of capitalism. Why give up and cry and remain enslaved to a simple marketing machine.

        • you need enough people to switch at once, but the people that would, complain that it is for “weak men and women”. the alternatiev exists. mewe.com

      • BS. Rationalization does NOT keep the pshrink away.

        Be an adult and build a REAL website it is NOT hard or expensive to used a canned service.

        Fakebook is for suckers.

      • My comment is not directed at businesses. Dr. Braniwash hit the nail on the head. Why enslave yourself? It’s like only reading Huffpo or CNN.

  9. But I do use it to contact relatives. Some relatives I have never met. If I need a kidney…

  10. Ok… I hate FB and don’t use it. But this.. “Ah, the joys of degrading and destroying Americans’ natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms”

    FB is not degrading anything. FB is not yours. It’s not public space. It’s FB’s space. You don’t pay for it. You infact are the product for advertisers and whatnot. Getting all mad about this is like getting mad that your favorite bar won’t let you buy or sell guns in their establishment. It’s not up to you, and it’s not preventing you from using another avenue. All this crying about FB is rediculously annoying. Don’t like FB? Don’t support it. That means hit the delete button. I did and honestly my quality of life drastically improved.

    • But here’s the thing, FB enjoys benefits from its relationship with the state.

      We don’t know the exact details, but Zuckerberg, his pals over at Google, and all the rest of these ultra liberal douchebags are regular guests at the White House. Do they get special tax breaks? Special regulations? Business deals sent their way? They aren’t going there just for tea.

      So then we have a quasi state organization here restricting our speech.

      This is censorship, there’s no other way to look at it. This is tyranny.

      • Censorship? F’ing TYRANNY?

        Jesus, get a grip.

        There are plenty of other ways to look at it, especially if you are not a paranoid tin foil chewer.

  11. Wow. Didn’t know what I was missing being on Facebook.

    Now I’m glad I’ve been missing it.

  12. The only reason I have FB is to follow gun/knife companies and my local state organization. LOL!

  13. Option 1: Leave Facebook.

    Option 2: Join anti-gun pages and report every instance of “gun owners should be shot” or its various permutations as a credible threat of violence.

    • Nice! Those are both good options.

      I went with the first option a while back–not to boycott or make a statement–but because I simply wanted more privacy and less distraction. Personally, I love the quiet of not being on it.

      I hope that everyone who plans to stay on Facebook chooses option 2.

  14. Ace Of Spades calls it…

    Not only do I think these sub-mediocre media are in Enemy Hands and used for the purpose of harming you and destroying this country, but I also happen to believe these are horrible ways to spend the ever-dwindling numbers of hours each of us is given in our lives.

    http://acecomments.mu.nu/?post=363577

    • They still have any BS you every put on their BS “service”. In all likelihood their are still on your device a tracking away. Ain’t it great.

  15. Now the Facebook users who are among the 100 million gun owners in this country need to start hitting that button on every post they see. All of them. There are 4.75 billion pieces of content shared daily on Facebook. The highest traffic rate is between 1 and 3 PM.

    They have just given us the weapon to stage an attack on the very mechanism they want to attack us with.

  16. Why not just get off Facebook? Biggest psychometric monitoring scheme outside of the neural monitors at the churches…

  17. How exactly did the nation become subservient to a web page? Maybe the nation needs to step back and examine how they ever got along without Mark Zuckerberg.

  18. Get off Facebook = abandon California. I use it for far-flung associates, former partners in crime, relatives, and church work. Not going to quit because I can’t buy a gun off it. Plus there are some gun groups there I wouldn’t have met outside of it.

    That, and I can’t get the same experience with MeWe, despite it being a far better setup, since few signed up for it or stayed there if they did. It’s like abandoning YouTube for Full30…yeah, the latter is better, but it’s not quite ripe yet.

  19. I love that the example for an Adult Product is….and Adult Item. Nope that’s not vague and arbitrary at all. LOL!

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