Facebook META -0.85%decrease; red down pointing triangle users have offered for sale on the platform handguns, rifles, shotguns and bullets to members of a forum devoted to an extremist Hindu organization with a history of violence in India.
Eight posts, some of which had been up since April, caught the eye of Raqib Hameed Naik, the founder of a group that monitors attacks against religious minorities in India. He began reporting them to Meta Platforms Inc. META -0.81%decrease; red down pointing triangle in late January as contravening the company’s publicly stated policy that prohibits private individuals from buying or selling firearms or ammunition on Facebook platforms.
Facebook declined to remove them, saying the posts didn’t violate the company’s rules, according to responses from the company that The Wall Street Journal reviewed.
After the Journal inquired about the posts, Facebook on Tuesday removed them, saying they ran afoul of the company’s policies.
“We prohibit individuals from buying or selling guns on our apps” and “remove violating content as soon as we see it,” a Meta spokeswoman said. She declined to comment on why the posts hadn’t been removed when first reported.
Meta has faced criticism from rights groups that it fails to adequately police its platform in India, its biggest market by users, where more than 300 million people use Facebook and more than 400 million people are on its WhatsApp messaging service.
This story was originally published in wsj.com . Read the full story here
