Facebook Bans Sites That Host Blueprints of 3D-Printed Guns (cbsnews.com)
Yesterday, Facebook said it's banning websites that host and share blueprints of 3D-printed guns. "Sharing instructions on how to print firearms using 3D printers is not allowed under our Community Standards," said a spokesperson in an email statement. "In line with our policies, we are removing this content from Facebook." BuzzFeed was first to report the news: The move comes amid a rush by states to block these instructions from being posted. A July settlement between the State Department and Defense Distributed, an open-source organization that created the first completely 3D-printed gun, cleared the way for the group to publish the gun code. However, that was stalled when a federal judge on July 31 granted a temporary nationwide injunction that prevented Defense Distributed from uploading the plans. The injunction prevents Defense Distributed from publishing the plans. But the instructions are widely available online, on sites such as CodeIsFreeSpeech.com -- which hosts plans for parts of an AR-15, a Beretta, and Defense Distributed's Liberator. Attempts to post the site on a user's News Feed, through Facebook's Messenger app, or on Instagram (which Facebook owns) produce a variety of error messages. Other sites that host the files can still be posted through Facebook. Specifically, Facebook says that 3D-printed guns violate the regulated goods section of the social giant's community standards, which limits gun sales and exchanges to licensed dealers.
More posturing by SJWs who think their opinion is important. The plans have been out for a while now and we hardly need FB's help to find them. Alternatively, we can go to an actual dealer and get blanks to make our own non-novelty gun.
Looks like facebook and the rest are finally deciding to test whether they're powerful enough to go full-Ministry of Truth successfully.
In related news, I started checking out Infowars yesterday for the first time in my life to see what they're all so scared of. I assume I could also find this printed gun thing in about 10 seconds as well if I cared to look (and had a 3d printer). Maybe I will anyway just on principle.
Sitting back and muching popcorn and a shot of tquila as Slashdot erupts in 3...2....1....
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Facebook does not have 'sites' that it can ban. They might host 'pages' that people are foolish enough to consider their 'sites.'
If you want a host a site, rent a server or a spot on a server and host your site. Facebook has no say in what you host on it.
all of us libtards who were up in arms over DeCSS, free speech flag, 'illegal prime numbers', wtc, we have to realize that essentially, a 3d printed gun file is simply a number. in other words, its just another kind of illegal number, along with the Playstation encryption keys or decss code or whatever. at some point we have to face the fact that information in pure form can be deadly , thats what a virus is basically, just DNA inside of a dumb casing. like the flu pandemic that killed tens of millions of people... thats technically just a number, not a very big one, GATCTCTAGC etc etc. its not enough to decry gun nuts as moron wackjobs. we have to deal with the fact that our society has evolved to a point, our species, where it could more easily wipe itself out than ever before. solving nuclear weapons proliferation was not the end. it was the beginning. we have no idea what we are doing and no idea what will happen next.
Banning LINKS to sites..
How the fuck does Facebook ban a site? Is this not the site that famously champions the information wants to be free mantra? Is this not the DECSS flaunting site? Fuck
The fact that they are censoring certain sites and not others shows a couple of things:
* They are a bunch of children who think they have the moral right to be the thought police. What gives them the right to decide what is acceptable or not?
* There are FAR worse sites that are allowed to be linked -- why aren't THOSE also removed?
Since corporations are ...
* legal entities
* have the same free speech rights as individuals (2010 ruling of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission with a 5-4 decision)
* are covered by the First Amendment
Is communication on FaceBook's platform considered to be on "private property"?
Is Facebook a "common carrier" or not when they have become a de facto Common / Town Square?
If they acted like adults, why can't they allow the link but ALSO put up a banner saying "We believe this link to be irresponsible" .. and then let the user decide if the link is worth clicking or not?
Slashdot's own moderation system of downvoting, but keeping, unpopular links, is the better way to handle this.
The fact that they are censoring communication that they (politically) disagree with just proves that they are immature and scared and operating under the modus operandi of "CYA".
--
Only children censor.
Adults communicate and even laugh about taboo subjects.
You think all these printed gun blueprints are legit? It's probably not much different than when the CIA would funnel ammunition with a 5% or so fail rate to insurgents with the hope that eventually their guns would be destroyed and maybe cause casualties. Sure, they will mostly work when you shoot a few cans in your backyard, but good luck fighting a war with them, which is supposedly the point.
The good news is that you can still see photos of your friends' new babies every day ad nauseum.
The bible, koran etc. are printed guns with terrrorist televangelists and ayatollahs.
Says the Anonymous Coward.
3D is old hat. 4D is the future. Then I will be able to shoot into enclosed spaces without hitting the walls or roof.
Now grandma can't get her copy of a 3D printed gun! How will she ever make that one-shot pistol she's always wanted? Seriously though, Facebook is losing relevance and traffic by the day and parading stuff like this around isn't going to help them. Nobody was going to Facebook to find links to 3D weapons blueprints before, and they still won't now. Short your Facebook stock now while they're still swirling in the toilet.
Hydraulic pizza oven!! Guided missile! Herring sandwich! Styrofoam! Jayne Mansfield! Aluminum siding! Borax!
From a useless company about a useless gun plan that's a already widely available.
You do know that these are being distributed* embedded in plain old graphics files? Better block all those cute kitten pics right now!
*Just to prove a point. The gun plans have been out there for years.
Have gnu, will travel.
Armilite pattern rifles are fine, but I'd rather just make an AK pattern out of a shovel blade hammered flat and cut into a receiver. Throw on a parts kit and you've got a working rifle. http://militaryhumor.net/homem...
Rifle is fine!
Only in 'Murrica. Holocaust denial: cool. Darwin-Award worthy plastic gun: bad.
LOL who needs laws, corporate rule is equipped just fine for censoring anything and everything that would disturb Joe Sixpack's feels.
PS: Vote Hillary 2020
We should probably try to create more of those URL shortener redirect thingamajigs. It will really throw a wrench into attempting to censor certain sites/URLs from being shared.
Facebook must allow what I want and disallow whatever I don't or they are fascists! #MAGA
Lot of downside risk for Facebook. Got to be a murder of lawyers somewhere considering the angles. Neither the NRA or Alex Jones are small fish. At best they loose conservatives , half their user base. At worst Zuckerberg gives all his money to Alex Jones.
As for google, their censored version for China has got to raise a few high powered human rights eyebrows. And the national security types would concerned with what kind of big data google would be forced to share with the Chinese communist party to into China.
Just sayin'...
Facebook of course privately owned and can do whatever silly thing it wants, but it's fighting the tide of history here and will not will in the end.
Banning information in any sort is basically censorship, and that never ends up well. Add to that they are trying to engage in prior restraint and I predict a swift decision in the favor of the 3D gun makers once it gets to the Supreme Court.
Ferret
Sic gorgiamus allos subjectatos nunc
Please folks, let's get back to reality. First, it is completely legal in the United States to build your own firearms ( https://www.quora.com/Is-is-tr... )-- anyone with access to basic machinery tools can do it -- think Zip Guns created by prisoners for the ease of creation. Second, plastic 3D gun are terrible.I would rather have a 1700s musket instead. The 3D printed guns have more in common with ancient firearms than modern firearms. It is cheaper and simpler to buy a fully built AR-15 than it is to "print" your own firearm from files downloaded off the internet. And if you really want to make your own M16 based pistol, Google will provide you detailed plans from their own servers: https://patents.google.com/pat.... You provide the tools and skill, Google will provide the detailed schematics. Will Facebook now block Google?
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
Semi-regular reminder that the Freenet Project still exists. https://freenetproject.org It's the first amendment that safeguards all others, so censorship in any form is an affront to everyone.
Personally, I don't think anyone needs a gun, but am all for gun-nuts spending several times more money on a weapon that's more likely to injure themselves than their target than they would spend just buying one from a shop or at a show.
Fuck you. Have you ever thought that they don't want to contribute to violence? If there's a possibility that one asshole won't get their hands on a gun, it's a good thing. It's called making the world a better place.
I don't respond to AC's.
Oh, wait...
many thousands of Americans know how to make guns, and ammo by traditional methods? ...huh...
plans to make guns have been (and still are) available in libraries all across America for its entire history?
people can still freely exchange 3D printed gun plans on memory sticks, or zipped-up and e-mailed etc?
I guess this is no big deal after all and we still have the original problem: the "problem" is not and has never been the technology, it's the human beings abusing the technology and no amount of technology suppression or unjustified suppression of the rights of decent people will have any impact on the "bad guys".
US ex-pat living in Japan here. They don't have mass shootings, they have mass stabbings, mass poisonings and sarin attacks. This in a country that take has very restrictive gun laws (basically it's a big NO) but at the same time has no problems with people walking around with swords (which they're cracking down on a bit) or bows (I see multiple people with yumi everyday). Both of which would be illegal in NYC (and a lot of other US cities). Yet the overall crime rate is much lower here and in general is infinitely safer than than most places in the US. The bottom line is that some people are just f*cked up and if they want to kill people, they're going to kill people.
Goodbyeeee
Prove anything by multiplying Huge Number times Tiny Number
I just downloaded 4 ebooks on gunsmithing from my local library. Totally free, totally legal.
I can make guns with the tools in my shop. A 3-D printer is just another tool.
Nothing is being sold. Facebook doesn't get it either.
This is the yumi link.
Every Republican in the country is going to see it as their duty to download these plans, now.
There are more guns than people in this country. What do a few hundred/thousand/million more matter?
Plus, these are plastic guns! How many Cleatuses are gonna blow their hands off trying this out? This might be a good thing.
I could host files to 3D print syringes for currently illegal drugs and FB wouldn't bat an eye.
But as long as FB can define "community" they can define "community standard" and do whatever the hell they want, and refuse to accept any responsibility for the decisions they make