White House Won’t Say If It Pressured Facebook to Ban Guns

Mark Wilson / Getty
Mark Wilson / Getty

Breitbart News reported on January 30 that Facebook and Instagram were tightening their anti-gun policies by barring private citizens from advertising gun sales on the social media platforms.

On February 1, White House press secretary Josh Earnest refused to say if Facebook’s decision was the result of pressure from the Obama administration. However, Earnest did say that the administration was pleased with Facebook’s ban on accepting advertisements for gun sales by private individuals.

According to the Washington Examiner, Earnest told reporters the administration did meet with “social media and technology companies” to discuss the “Internet loophole” on gun sales. He said they emphasized ways to close it, but he would not say that Facebook’s decision arose from “any specific request” from administration officials.

Earnest did laud Facebook’s decision, however, saying, “We welcome this step. We talked about how the Internet is a loophole,” so it is a “common-sense effort to prevent guns from easily falling into the hands of criminals or other individuals who shouldn’t be allowed to access guns.”

AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.

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