Senator pummels Mark Zuckerberg with questions about gun sales on Facebook
Facebook is facing new questions over how it deals with guns on its network after reports that the Dallas police shooter previously arranged to buy an AK-47 on Facebook.
Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey sent a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom Wednesday urging them to do more to prevent their platforms form being used as a marketplace for firearms. Markey's letter follows an earlier report in the New York Daily News that says the Dallas police shooter used Facebook to arrange the purchase of an AK-47 in 2014.
It appears that gun was likely not involved in the shooting that left five police officers dead and seven others injured but it raises new questions about Facebook's policies. In Markey's letter, which you can read in its entirety here, the senator asks several pointed questions about how Facebook enforces its ban on private gun sales.
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Are Facebook and Instagram users still able to post content (photos, messages in groups, status updates on personal pages, etc.) in furtherance of gun sales?
What steps did Facebook and Instagram take to implement Facebook’s 2014 announced policy change intended to address gun sales?
Between 2014, when Facebook announced policy changes intended to address gun sales on Facebook and Instagram, and early 2016 when Facebook announced it would ban gun sales on its platform and on Instagram, how many Facebook and Instagram users attempted to post content in furtherance of a gun sale?
Since the beginning of 2016, has Facebook shut down any “groups” or accounts promoting or facilitating gun sales?
From 2014 through the present, how many requests have Facebook and Instagram received from law enforcement for assistance investigating gun sales, including requests for records?
“I remain deeply concerned that gun sales on Facebook and Instagram — or sales posted online but negotiated and concluded offline — may circumvent or violate state and federal laws, resulting in numerous unlawful sales of handguns, assault weapons, and other firearms,” he writes.
Markey cites the New York Daily News report as well as several other media reports highlighting the ease with which people still use Facebook and Instagram to arrange to buy and sell guns via their personal accounts. "As recently as today, my office was able to find postings for gun sales on Facebook using search terms like ‘#Glock’ and ‘#PistolSale,’"Markey writes.
Mashable was also able to find public posts on Facebook from individuals selling guns Wednesday.
"As recently as today, my office was able to find postings for gun sales on Facebook"
In a statement, a Facebook spokesperson said the company removes posts advertising private sales of firearms "as soon as we become aware of it."
“We prohibit people from using Facebook to offer and coordinate private sales of firearms. Any content that violates this policy will be removed as soon as we become aware of it - whether it is in groups, on profiles, or on pages.”
This is far from the first time the social network has grappled with the issue of gun sales on its platform. Facebook and Facebook-owned Instagram announced in January they were banning peer-to-peer gun sales on their services. Though users were never actually able to complete these type of transactions through Facebook, the social network was home to many groups and pages where private sales between users were advertised and arranged. These types of arrangements were banned under the new rules, though the site still allows licensed gun retailers to advertise and post about their businesses.
Despite some praise at the time of the new policies, both Facebook and Instagram have come under fire for not doing more to curb these sales.
That's because the company relies largely on its users to report these types of posts, which may lead to uneven enforcement. The company also has no way to monitor users' private conversations (and doing so would spark a privacy backlash of its own), which is where many of these agreements may be arranged.
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Karissa was Mashable's Senior Tech Reporter, and is based in San Francisco. She covers social media platforms, Silicon Valley, and the many ways technology is changing our lives. Her work has also appeared in Wired, Macworld, Popular Mechanics, and The Wirecutter. In her free time, she enjoys snowboarding and watching too many cat videos on Instagram. Follow her on Twitter @karissabe.
