Within hours of introducing its new Craigslist-like sales feature Monday, Facebook executives apologized for hundreds of “inappropriate” listings popping up on the website.
Mary Ku, director of product management, issued a statement Monday blaming “technical issues” for allowing users to post ads for guns, sexual services and drugs.
“As a result [of the technical issue], certain posts with content that violated our policies were made visible to people visiting Marketplace,” Ku said in a statement released to multiple media outlets. “We are working to fix the problem and will be closely monitoring our systems to ensure we are properly identifying and removing violations before giving more people access to Marketplace. We apologize for this issue.”
Facebook’s commerce policy forbids users from buying and selling weapons, ammunition, drugs, adult services and “health items,” and animals, among others.
Facebook implemented a policy change in January banning private gun sales. More than 10,000 users fleed the website in search of more Second Amendment-friendly social media platforms, Guns.com previously reported.
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