New tactic involves posts purporting to sell stickers of logos
on the platform's Marketplace
By Parmy Olson
This article is being republished as part of our daily
reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S.
print edition of The Wall Street Journal (August 25, 2020).
Gun sellers have adopted a new tactic to attract buyers on
Facebook Inc.'s Marketplace -- a year after Democratic lawmakers
called on Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg to more-effectively
police the site's ban on firearm sales.
Similar to Craigslist, Facebook's Marketplace allows the social
media platform's more than 2.7 billion users to list goods they
want to sell, alongside a price and a description. The company bars
many items from Marketplace, including the private sale of guns or
ammunition.
Last year, The Wall Street Journal reported that dozens of
would-be sellers across 10 U.S. cities were advertising rifles and
handguns on the site, but disguising them in posts as gun cases or
empty gun boxes, often accompanied by photos of the cases with
gun-manufacturer logos.
Now, a new tactic involves posts purporting to sell stickers,
alongside images of gun makers' logos. Sellers typically ask an
interested party to send a private message via the service for more
information. Several sellers contacted by the Journal responded to
say they were actually selling guns, not stickers, and provided
details and pricing.
The Journal, using a simple search for "gun sticker" and
"stickers," over two days earlier this month surfaced more than 40
posts that purported to be selling stickers, next to images of gun
makers' logos, or a particular caliber ammunition. After that
search, Facebook's recommendation algorithm offered a Journal
reporter a full page of more than 50 similar postings across
multiple U.S. states.
A separate, one-day analysis conducted last week by Storyful
identified more than a dozen listings for stickers of popular gun
brand logos, including Smith & Wesson Brands Inc. and Remington
Outdoor Co., across 10 U.S. cities. In Lexington, Ky., and San
Angelo, Texas, for instance, the search found two listings in each
city for stickers related to gun brands. Storyful is a social-media
intelligence agency owned by News Corp, which also owns the
Journal. While some gun manufacturers have profile pages on
Facebook, there is no indication they sell firearms on the
site.
One seller in Amory, Miss., posted the logo for Glock
Ges.m.b.H., an Austrian maker of semiautomatic handguns, describing
his item as a "0.40 sticker," for $450. He also posted "PM for
info," a shorthand way of asking interested parties to send a
private message via the Facebook Marketplace platform for more
information. When contacted by the Journal, the seller said he was
actually selling a Glock .40-caliber pistol.
Another seller in Beech Grove, Tenn., advertised a "Great little
sticker 22 inches" for $300, next to an image of the logo for
Savage Arms Inc., a gun maker based in Westfield, Mass. Over a
private message, he sent photos of a .22-caliber semiautomatic
rifle. Two other posters, contacted by the Journal, confirmed they
were selling firearms, not stickers.
Facebook said earlier this month, as part of a quarterly report
on how it polices content across the site, that it had removed 1.3
million pieces of content related to firearms between April and
June 2020, a number similar to the first three months of the year.
Facebook didn't specify in its report, or following a query from
the Journal, if this content was on Marketplace, its Groups service
or from users' individual Newsfeeds.
"We take action against anyone we catch trying to sell guns on
our platform," a Facebook spokeswoman said, when asked about the
proliferation of gun-sticker posts on Marketplace. "We've removed
listings that were flagged and will continue to investigate."
The new tactic has emerged as Americans buy guns in record
numbers. The boom has been attributed to the new coronavirus
pandemic, civil unrest related to the killing of George Floyd and
efforts in some cities to defund police forces.
It also comes as Facebook's ability to police content on its
site faces fresh scrutiny on several fronts. In the wake of the
pandemic, conspiracy theories about the virus have proliferated on
the platform, according to NewsGuard, which monitors news sites
that it says traffic in dubious information. Facebook said it had
removed hundreds of thousands of pieces of what it determined to be
harmful misinformation and was directing its users to resources
from health authorities.
Separately, Facebook has been accused of applying hate-speech
rules unevenly around the world. Facebook said it prohibits hate
speech globally "without regard to anyone's political position or
party affiliation."
The private sale of firearms is legal in the U.S., and while
sales across state lines are meant to be funneled through licensed
gun dealers, prosecutions are rare when they aren't. People barred
from owning guns, due to state or federal restrictions, can turn to
online exchanges and social-media sites to avoid background checks
when making a transaction.
Like the rest of the site, Facebook's Marketplace platform uses
a combination of artificial-intelligence algorithms and human
moderators to weed out posts that violate its policies, such as ads
for guns, drugs or animals, the company says. Last year, in
response to the Journal's reporting on guns being marketed as boxes
or cases, a group of 15 Democratic senators, including
now-vice-presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris, wrote to
Facebook demanding information on how it polices gun sales on
Marketplace.
Facebook responded to the senators' questions in a letter saying
it was building new tools to better detect bad behavior, and
increasing its team of people who reviewed listings on its
Marketplace. Sen. Bob Menendez (D., N.J.), who spearheaded the
government's inquiry, said the continued gun sales suggested
Facebook's reviewers were doing a "lousy job."
Georgia-based Rob Disner, an audio engineer who tracks suspected
gun sales on Facebook in his spare time and says he isn't
affiliated with antigun groups, said he had flagged more than 100
postings of gun-manufacturer logos marked as stickers to Facebook's
content moderators since January. For about half, he was notified
by Facebook that they were reviewed. None was taken down, he said.
Mr. Disner said it was easy to tell that the ads were for guns, and
that messaging a seller usually confirmed it.
Mr. Disner said Facebook's algorithm now also automatically
shows him such posts whenever he goes on the site. "When you start
to search for stickers," he said, "they show up all the time in
your feed."
Write to Parmy Olson at parmy.olson@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 25, 2020 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)
Historical Stock Chart
From Aug 2024 to Sep 2024
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)
Historical Stock Chart
From Sep 2023 to Sep 2024