META Meta Platforms Inc

By Deepa Seetharaman 

Facebook Inc. is banning private gun sales on the social network and its Instagram photo-sharing network, the company said Friday.

The changes target individuals offering guns for sale, rather than guns sold by stores or licensed retailers. Those retailers can still display their wares on Facebook "while completing sales transactions off Facebook," a spokeswoman said.

This month, President Barack Obama outlined a plan to bolster gun regulation. The plan requires more sellers to be licensed as well as screening all sales online and at gun shows, some of which now don't require background checks, he said.

"The updated policy aligns more closely with our policies around commerce and advertising, which place similar restrictions on advertisements of regulated goods including pharmaceuticals, illegal drugs, and firearms," the Facebook spokeswoman said.

The news was reported earlier by Reuters.

In recent years, Facebook has been making it easier for its users to buy, sell and trade items. These interactions often happen over Facebook groups and through private messages.

Before Friday's change, Facebook's policies already prohibited users from selling marijuana, pharmaceuticals and illegal drugs on the site. In 2014, the company changed how it monitored the private sale of regulated items like guns, including reminding users to comply with the relevant laws.

The Trace, a blog that focuses on gun issues, reported earlier this month that it was still easy for Facebook users to arrange gun sales while bypassing background checks.

"Moms are grateful for the leadership shown by Facebook today by announcing that they will remove all unlicensed gun sales from their platforms," Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, said in a statement.

In an interview, Ms. Watts said her group had been talking to Facebook executives for two years about limiting the promotion of guns. "It's a huge platform they have," she said.

The National Rifle Association didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Write to Deepa Seetharaman at Deepa.Seetharaman@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 29, 2016 19:32 ET (00:32 GMT)

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