Pressured by President Obama’s deceptive suggestion that criminals buy firearms through the Internet as easily as Beanie Babies through eBay, two of the world’s most popular websites, Facebook and Instagram, now ban communications soliciting lawful firearms transactions between private individuals, The New York Times reports.
Although neither network participates in firearms commerce, Facebook and Instagram users sometimes post messages offering a firearm for sale in a private transaction to a lawful resident of the same state—which in most states is perfectly legal—or post pictures of firearms they’d like to purchase. Under their new policy, the networks will prohibit such communication, and recruit other users to report and punish it.
As you may have guessed, the new policy is unlikely to significantly affect criminals. But by requesting that the 2 billion monthly active users treat posts regarding firearms the same way they treat those for illegal drugs, Facebook and Instagram will serve anti-gunners’ objective of marginalizing and stigmatizing firearms ownership.
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