In response to pressure from Moms Demand Action and a handful of allies, Facebook has announced some changes to the way it will treat pages that relate to firearms. The reforms stop a long way short of what the groups had wanted.
Per the Los Angeles Times:
Under intensifying pressure from gun control groups and New York Atty. Gen. Eric Schneiderman, Facebook is tightening its policies to make it more difficult for people to illegally sell or trade guns on Facebook and Instagram, particularly to minors.
The giant social network will block minors from seeing posts about gun sales and trades, the company said Wednesday.
Facebook said it would limit access to posts about gun sales and trades to people 18 and older. And it said it would require Facebook pages primarily used to promote the private sale of regulated goods and services to include language that reminds them to comply with laws and regulations and limit access to people 18 and older in the case of goods such as alcohol.
Any time Facebook receives a report about a post promoting the private sale of regulated goods such as guns, it will send a message to that user reminding him or her to comply with laws and regulations, Facebook said. Anyone searching on Instagram for sales of firearms will be shown similar reminders.
Facebook also said it would not allow users to post offers to sell regulated goods “that indicate a willingness to evade or help others evade the law,” the company said.
Seems reasonable. Moms Demand Action is claiming victory, of course, explaining in a press release that it was “gratified” that Facebook had agreed to “take meaningful steps.” In truth, this is a long, long way from what the group desired, which, according to Venturebeat, was for Facebook to “ban gun-themed fan pages on the site” completely.
All in all, common sense prevailed.