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Facebook Shoots Down Gun Ads
David Utter
Staff Writer
2008-01-23
 Insider Reports RSS Feed
The owner of a firearms training center in Nevada had his advertising campaign on Facebook scuttled by the social networking site.
 | | Facebook Shoots Down Gun Ads |  |
Front Sight owner Ignatius Piazza had an interesting pitch for readers of his Facebook ads. Sign up for certain training courses, and receive a Springfield Armory XD handgun.
Infomatics said in a report the giveaway would have handed out $3 million in handguns to 5,000 students of the courses listed in the ads.
But Facebook saw the advertisements as a violation of its ad guidelines. The report said Front Sight's ads contravened Point 6 of those guidelines.
That appears to be a mistake on someone's part. In the Facebook ad guidelines, Point 6 has to do with adult content, as well as obscene language and defamatory content.
Point 7, however, lists the types of ads Facebook won't accept. "We do not accept advertising referencing, facilitating or promoting the following: Ammunition or firearms," said one of the bullet points in the list.
Why bring this up for security pros? It's a good illustration of the kinds of misunderstandings and bad information that can circulate quickly when people, like users who open every email they receive and click on every weird link, don't pay attention to details.
Sometimes a little extra communication makes a difference. It's easy to make a typo that changes the meaning of an explanation. We're guessing that happened here with Facebook and Front Sight.
About the Author:
David Utter is a business and technology writer for SecurityProNews and WebProNews.
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