Weekly NDM Story ..

Facebook agrees to delete posts selling illegal guns

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/mar/05/facebook-to-delete-illegal-gun-sales-posts

Under pressure from gun control advocates, Facebook agreed Wednesday to delete posts from users selling illegal guns or offering weapons for sale without background checks. A similar policy will apply to Instagram, the company’s photo-sharing network, Facebook said. The policies announced Wednesday will be implemented over the next few weeks. “We will remove reported posts that explicitly indicate a specific attempt to evade or help others evade the law,” the company said in a statement Wednesday. “For example, we will remove reported posts where the potential buyer or seller indicates they will not conduct a background check or are willing to sell across state lines without a licensed firearms dealer.”

New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman and gun control groups have been asking Facebook to implement such restrictions. New York requires a federal background check for private gun sales and prohibits sales of some popular firearms, such as the AR-15. His office collected evidence that some website users were willing to sell guns without background checks or otherwise violate the sales restrictions of states with tougher gun control laws. Mayors Against Illegal Guns, the group backed by former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, and Moms Demand Action have been pressuring Facebook to address the issue. Petitions from Moms Demand Action calling on Facebook to prohibit illegal gun sales had more than 230,000 signatures. Acknowledging people can’t actually sell things to each other through its site, Facebook said many people and organizations use its free tools to promote commercial transactions.

“This is one of many areas where we face a difficult challenge balancing individuals’ desire to express themselves on our services and recognizing that this speech may have consequences elsewhere,” the company said. The company said it already has systems in place to remove advertising that’s false and deceptive or violates its policies. It already prohibits ads for illegal drugs, tobacco products and prescription drugs. There’s no way to know how many guns are sold via Facebook, because the transactions are actually completed offline, said John Feinblatt, chairman of Mayors Against Illegal Guns. But such sales have occurred. In Kentucky, for example, federal authorities in February charged an Ohio man with illegally selling a 9mm pistol to a Kentucky teenager, a transaction that investigators say was arranged through Facebook.

Tom King, president of the New York affiliate of the National Rifle Association, acknowledged that Facebook is allowed to set its own rules, but he looks at the new restrictions “as a kind of limit on our first amendment rights.” Although his group doesn’t sell guns, he questioned whether they could be blocked if somebody reports the Rifle & Pistol Association’s Facebook page anyway. “This is something that could greatly get out of control very quickly,” King said. 

Overall, I think the police need to keep a close eye on social networking sites because people find it so easy to sell and promote drugs and guns, someone once posted images of their products on instagram and sold their drugs, eventually the police  found out and put a stop to it. But that's the whole point, it's so easy for people to use social networking sites to sell their drugs hence the police need to keep a close watch on people.