The Facebook Spin!

So Facebook was demanded to take a stand on guns, and they did. Well I’ll let the antis tell you what they think. Brady PDF:

BRADY’S ASSESSMENT:
Facebook’s new gun policy does not go far enough to prevent dangerous people, like felons or
domestic abusers, from purchasing guns without a background check for three simple reasons:
1) Unlicensed Sellers Can Still Post Guns For Sale on Facebook and Instagram
Google, Craigslist, and eBay all prohibit unlicensed sellers from advertising guns for sale. Facebook
has failed to meet the bar set by these other websites.
2) Community Monitoring Is Inadequate
Instead of a more sophisticated technical solution, Facebook will rely solely on its members to
report violations, leaving innumerable gun ads untouched.
3) The Reminders to Comply with Gun Laws Are Not Visible Enough
Most sellers will never see important messages reminding them to comply with gun laws. Facebook
will only send reminders to a seller when their post is reported and will allow administrators of gun
pages to relegate this information to the About Us section.

I agree with all their assessments, except I’m pleased rather than displeased. What’s really cool is Facebook was formed as a social site where people could meet up, look up lost acquaintances, and mindlessly sputter about their mundane days.

Like everything that is user-based, things rapidly changed. Facebook is used by political campaigns to support their cause. Its used by businesses to promote their business. Its used similar to how blogging websites like this are used.

Also people started selling guns. Now facebook was never intended to be a sales bazaar, but while its good sight to organize a meet-up of friends to enjoy a meal, its also just as good to organize a meet up for the transfer of a firearm.

Places like Craig’s List, Amazon, and Ebay were started as sales sites, and they decided that guns were one of the several things they didn’t want to sell. That’s fine, its their site, and their rules. Google is a little different, they have sales sections, but they also have social sections. Either way, Google is anti-gun and has done all it can to squash all of that. Still their rules, I’m fine with that.

Further Facebook had every right to ban any sort of sale, transfer, display, or discussion of guns. They chose not to. This isn’t a huge victory for the pro-gun side, nor would it have been a defeat. Still essentially Facebook has set up a framework for what they consider acceptable transfer of firearms, essentially green-lighting the practice so long as you play by the rules.

That’s pretty cool! Now at the forefront of this was Moms Demand Action. Let’s have a look at their spin:

Moms Make Facebook Safer: Nine Ways Facebook Agreed to Crack Down on Illegal Gun Sales

Ooh let’s have a look!

1. Facebook will block all users under the age of 18 from viewing reported private gun sale posts and pages primarily used for these offers.

Good, guns are for grown-ups. Now children are allowed to shoot guns in this country, but adults need to take responsibility for that. Some states allow minors to own guns if they are of a certain age, or meet certain requirements, still that gun needs to come from an adult somehow, as FFL transfers are 18 for long-guns and 21 for handguns on the federal level. This is a smart move for facebook as this plays it safe with the maze of state laws.

2. Users will be able to flag posts that promote suspicious and potentially illegal gun sales for deletion.

This is Facebook’s policing system. They don’t scan every post that goes up, instead they allow people to flag posts and they will look to see it it breaks the terms of service, and delete any offending post. They have rules, you have to play by them. They judge the rules when other users flag them. Smart, as it has Facebook expend less effort on their end policing it.

3. Facebook will delete reported posts that offer gun sales without background checks.

This is actually a half-truth. Legal private sales CANNOT undergo a background check, and these sales are permitted under Facebook rules. What Facebook does it they will delete any post that specifically advertises “no background check required”. So if you want to legally sell a gun to another person in your state, you won’t be running a background check, but don’t remind Facebook of this, they won’t like it.

4. Facebook will delete all reported posts that offer gun sales across state lines.

Nope! Facebook will delete any posts that advertise an ILLEGAL sale. From their presser:

We will not permit people to post offers to sell regulated items that indicate a willingness to evade or help others evade the law. For example, private sellers of firearms in the U.S. will not be permitted to specify “no background check required,” nor can they offer to transact across state lines without a licensed firearms dealer.

You can buy and sell guns across state lines, you just need to involve an FFL in the state where the gun is transferred. This is federal law, so Facebook is simply taking the same stance they do on child pornography, criminal threats, and drug sales. So this isn’t really anything new, just a clarification of Facebook policy that has always been around.

5. Facebook will continue to report threatening gun-related posts to law enforcement.

See above, this is nothing new, nor does it have anything to do with guns.

6. Users will have to acknowledge laws that apply to them when they sell guns — and they’ll be blocked from continuing to the site if they don’t.

Pretty good policy. Most sites that offer sales of guns or anything else put up “Lawyer Warnings” like this. It allows them to be safe in case something illegal slips under their radar. A criminal act committed through or using Facebook is the responsibility of the user, not Facebook. Duhh!

7. All gun-related Facebook pages and groups have to acknowledge the laws that apply to them, and must display this information prominently. Once reported, they’ll be taken down temporarily until they do so.

more of the same above. Man now I’m wondering why they didn’t work this redundancy up so they could get a round ten instead of nine. Two more!

8. Searching Instagram for gun-related hashtags will prompt a warning and require users to acknowledge gun sale laws before viewing search results.

Ok maybe they were trying for 10, and just couldn’t spread it THAT thin.

9. Facebook will target ads at users interested in gun-related pages with information on gun sale laws — including background checks requirements.

Good for them!

Yeah as you can see this is a defeat for Moms that they are at best trying to spin as a hollow victory.

Better yet, this is promoting in-fighting between the anti-gun groups. Brady is pissed at Facebook and demanding more, while Moms is doing their best to spin this as a desperately needed win, and is not making further requests for fear that it will hurt them in the long run.

Awesome!