4 ms·

I was surprised by this line of comments since I recall my feed having gun / hunting / shooting sports related content (including ads) so I looked into it. Fac

I was surprised by this line of comments since I recall my feed having gun / hunting / shooting sports related content (including ads) so I looked into it. Facebook has a policy banning private individuals from selling guns to each other on their platform - https://www.facebook.com/help/179037502478035 https://www.facebook.com/help/179037502478035 and "Armslist" appears to be a platform for doing just that: "Gun Classifieds, Guns for Sale, No Fees, 45000 guns for sale. The largest free gun classifieds on the web. Buy guns, sell guns, trade guns." One could argue that the transaction isn't happening "on Facebook" since it's going through Armslist, but I don't find that convincing. If take payment via Venmo does that mean it's "not on Facebook" if everything else about the sale was? Anyway, I fault Facebook for plenty and generally avoid it now, but I don't fault them for this policy. Private sales can get into sketchy territory really quick and I wouldn't want to mess with that on a public platform I created unless I was willing to invest in the nuance there which has basically no value proposition for Facebook.

COGlory 6y ago
Sure, I don't fault Facebook either. I think they're wrong, and making a mistake, but I understand why, and think it's a mistake they are absolutely allowed to make. Technically, Armslist is legal. They don't even facilitate transactions on Armslist, and it's local laws that apply. Basically, it's a Craiglist for firearms. Armslist has also won numerous lawsuits[1] by claiming Section 230 protection. Facebook doesn't know this, and they have no reason to know this. Acquiring this information about Armslist would require someone up high enough at the company to impact US policy to understand this. That would cost money. It makes more sense to avoid it altogether, just like it makes sense to avoid pornography altogether, rather than watching every video that gets posted, in case a "model" is underage. Matrix gives me the perfect opportunity to continue this conversation on my own terms, using my own knowledge to moderate it. However, there's also another reason that inspired me to ditch Facebook, which is the fact that they are censoring my private messages at all, without any action by a human being to report them or anything like that. I just dislike that policy, and so I chose to stop using Facebook over it. [1] https://www.armslist.com/blog/get-involved/armslist-defeats-gungrabbers-in-court https://www.armslist.com/blog/get-involved/armslist-defeats-...
- adamsea 6y ago
  Thanks for your response. Why do you think Facebook is wrong? Honest question.
  - COGlory 6y ago
    Because there's no legal liability in the US for allowing links to Armslist. At least, no more legal liability than linking to a website like Craigslist. So they're censoring and driving away some small subset of users for a perceived benefit (less legal liability) that isn't actually real.
    - adamsea 6y ago
      Thanks for your response. I'm basing this on what another commenter said, but, I take it your root issue then is Facebook's policy against private individuals selling each other guns on their platform? Or, did I misunderstand something? : )

COGlory 6y ago

Sure, I don't fault Facebook either. I think they're wrong, and making a mistake, but I understand why, and think it's a mistake they are absolutely allowed to make. Technically, Armslist is legal. They don't even facilitate transactions on Armslist, and it's local laws that apply. Basically, it's a Craiglist for firearms. Armslist has also won numerous lawsuits[1] by claiming Section 230 protection. Facebook doesn't know this, and they have no reason to know this. Acquiring this information about Armslist would require someone up high enough at the company to impact US policy to understand this. That would cost money. It makes more sense to avoid it altogether, just like it makes sense to avoid pornography altogether, rather than watching every video that gets posted, in case a "model" is underage. Matrix gives me the perfect opportunity to continue this conversation on my own terms, using my own knowledge to moderate it. However, there's also another reason that inspired me to ditch Facebook, which is the fact that they are censoring my private messages at all, without any action by a human being to report them or anything like that. I just dislike that policy, and so I chose to stop using Facebook over it. [1] https://www.armslist.com/blog/get-involved/armslist-defeats-gungrabbers-in-court https://www.armslist.com/blog/get-involved/armslist-defeats-...

adamsea 6y ago
Thanks for your response. Why do you think Facebook is wrong? Honest question.
- COGlory 6y ago
  Because there's no legal liability in the US for allowing links to Armslist. At least, no more legal liability than linking to a website like Craigslist. So they're censoring and driving away some small subset of users for a perceived benefit (less legal liability) that isn't actually real.
  - adamsea 6y ago
    Thanks for your response. I'm basing this on what another commenter said, but, I take it your root issue then is Facebook's policy against private individuals selling each other guns on their platform? Or, did I misunderstand something? : )