Facebook blocks unlicensed gun sales

Facebook has banned people using the social network for unlicensed gun sales after pressure from anti-gun violence groups alarmed over the ease with which firearms are sold online in the United States.

Although Facebook and its Instagram photo-sharing service do not participate in outright gun sales, the sites have been a forum for negotiations. The California-based social network on Friday updated its policy for managing regulated goods to prohibit people who are not gun dealers from using Facebook to offer guns for sale or negotiate private sales of firea-rms. “Over the last two ye-ars, more and more people have been using Facebook to discover products and to buy and sell things to one another,” Facebook head of product policy Monika Bickert said.

The policy change, however, will not affect licen-sed gun dealers who tout their wares on the social network, which is used by 1.59 billion people monthly.

Facebook has similar restrictions on regulated goods such as prescription and illegal drugs. Faceb-ook and Instagram in 2014 restricted posts about buying or selling guns to users 18 years of age or older.

The social network has been under political pressure in the United States to prevent posts that could result in people side-stepping gun-buying laws or background checks.