Facebook now allows its users to flag suspected gun sale posts on the social media platform. This new feature was absent when Facebook announced in January the banning of gun and ammunition sales through their website, according to Forbes.
The social media giant boasts 1.65 billion monthly active users, and now that the feature is available, makes every single one capable of flagging posts that appear to be a transaction, whether purchase or sale, of guns, ammunition, drugs, or any other regulated goods.
The new feature may have been Facebook's response to the weeks that have followed the initial announcement of prohibiting such transaction where complaints from users, which have taken up to themselves to report the posts to police.
Previously, advocates can only report suspected transactions as "harassment" or "credible threat of violence," wherein the direct result of miscommunication among Facebook regulators to distinguish the banned content.
Facebook has admitted that despite the announcement, the ban wasn't as effective as they have wanted. Three months since the banishment, now users can directly flag a post and report appropriately.
Although the popular vote is for Facebook, many have motioned against the banishment. Some claim that the filter also harms gun groups and manufacturer that are innocent from selling guns or ammunition on the site, claims Bearing Arms.
Several subscribers to these groups and pages have also voiced out their frustrations arguing that content is buried deep within their feeds or none at all.
This issue also bears light upon the recent issue surrounding Facebook of manipulating its user's feed with a political bias, where former Facebook "content curators" were quoted as saying that they are directed to filter out particular pages with distinct political views.
Facebook has neither denied nor confirmed the allegations, but it has admitted that there is a "problem," as of which the social media giant's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, held a conference on Wednesday to address the issue.