Facebook adds more gun advertising restrictions on site

Facebook has announced new age restrictions on weapon accessory advertisements. Beginning June 21, products like gun holsters can only be advertised to those 18 and older.

Previously, advertisers could promote weapons accessories including, “products that are mounted on guns for the purposes of illuminating, magnifying or focusing in on (e.g. optics, flashlights) a target as well as holsters and belt accessories.”

The updated policy reads:

Source: Facebook

The social network already prohibits ads for weapon sales and modifications like magazines. However, advertisers have been able to promote other weapons accessories, including products that are mounted on guns for the purposes of illuminating, magnifying or focusing in on (e.g. optics, flashlights) a target as well as holsters and belt accessories.

Facebook’s been in the news a lot in the past few days.

Just last week, it announced users can now file complaints about businesses they’ve had a problem with, and purchased from, after clicking on one of their ads. If enough people complain, the company may lose advertising privileges.

The new advertising policy is supposed to eliminate “bad shopping experiences.” Problem areas it would most like to improve include shipping times, product quality, and customer service.

Also last week, Facebook released two documents to the U.S. government where it admitted to collecting data from non-subscribers. The admission came in answers it submitted to both the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

It also admitted to tracking mouse movements from users. According to Facebook, it tracks mouse movements to help its algorithms distinguish between humans and bots–but also to determine if the browser window that has Facebook loaded is in the foreground or background of a user’s screen. It also has admitted to other device metrics it records about users.

For other Facebook news, see: 

• A Facebook bug lead to 14 million users having private posts shared as public
• Facebook is losing younger users, tries to compensate with a new gaming platform, fb.gg
• The state of Washington is suing Facebook and Google over political advertising

Bryan M. Wolfe

Bryan considers himself a well-rounded techie, having written articles for MakeUseOf, KnowTechie, AppAdvice, iDownload Blog. When he's not writing, he's being a single dad and rooting for his alma mater, Penn State, or cheering on the Patriots.