On Monday morning, Facebook Marketplace launched where users can buy and sell almost any physical object. So you can sell anything as long as it isn’t illegal or banned by Facebook’s guidelines. Some of the contraband that has been outlawed is illegal, prescription or recreational drugs, weapons, ammunition, animals, adult items or services. Within hours, ALL of those illegitimate items were on Facebook Marketplace.
Recreational and illegal drugs.
back in NY we have to just buy our drugs on Facebook pic.twitter.com/K52j7RUlz7
— Tim Bernal (@tombornal) October 3, 2016
https://twitter.com/yungvexed/status/783050119495028736
https://twitter.com/sophie_westonn/status/783031177334620160
Babies, weapons, ammunition, and animals, including ADORABLE baby hedgehogs!
Hey @facebook, #Marketplace is off to a good start. Dogs. Guns. Sweet. pic.twitter.com/NoEpePuV96
— Josh Chace (@JOSHinHD) October 3, 2016
Thank you Facebook Marketplace for giving me the opportunity to buy babies or guns… pic.twitter.com/4g08zXkpmk
— Zack Neiner (@ZackNeiner) October 3, 2016
https://twitter.com/Helllllas/status/779707092198301701
Even Water. Without a bottle.
https://twitter.com/jonsteinberg/status/783088782283313153
Even tamales.
https://twitter.com/the23jud/status/778707539672182790
This place has got everything.
Facebook Marketplace, which was instantly touted as the Craigslist-killer, even saw listings for cocaine and prostitution on their new classified ad service. I personally performed an in-depth investigation to find prostitution and drugs on Marketplace, for journalistic research of course, but I did not find any. I’ll continue to monitor for these illegal activities, for journalistic research of course.
By Monday night, Facebook said it was sorry that so many illegal products and services were available on their new service. Mary Ku, director of product management at Facebook, apologized and said that a technical issue prevented the company from identifying posts that violated its policies.
“As a result, certain posts with content that violated our policies were made visible to people visiting Marketplace,” Ku said in an emailed statement. “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 MarketplKuace.”
Facebook said it was taking “appropriate action to make Marketplace a safe place for people.”
Facebook will allow their 1.71 billion monthly users can buy and sell their crap in a hyperlocal, community-driven online shopping experience. Right now it has only been rolled out on the iOS and Android Facebook apps. This is a reboot of sorts for Facebook, because in 2007 they launched a similar e-commerce project but it failed.
Now please excuse me, I have to go shopping for baby hedgehogs and cocaine. Maybe a tamale for later.
[CNNMoney]