Facebook apologises after people use its new Marketplace to sell guns, drugs… and baby hedgehogs
Facebook Marketplace launches as rival to eBay and Gumtree
WITHIN hours of Facebook launching a new Marketplace feature users were trying to flog drugs, guns, animals and adult services.
The social media giant was forced to apologise after a technical issue allowed posts advertising illicit goods.
Thereported that a technical issue stopped the company from identifying posts that breached its policies, when the feature was initially launched.
Users quickly took to Twitter to share posts advertising dogs, guns, drugs... and even hedgehogs for sale.
One post reads "Need to find homes - I have five baby hedgehogs they are tame no delivery 50 each".
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Mary Ku, director of product management at Facebook said: "Certain posts with content that violated our policies were made visible to people visiting Marketplace.
"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."
The Facebook Marketplace will allow people to buy and sell items locally and it could rival sites such as eBay and Gumtree.
Users in the UK, US, Australia and New Zealand, can browse goods in their surrounding area - and message sellers directly to arrange purchase.
Launching the feature Ms Ku said: "In recent years more people have been using Facebook to connect in another way: buying and selling with each other.
"This activity started in Facebook Groups and has grown substantially. More than 450 million people visit buy and sell groups each month."
As well as illegal goods, Facebook bans "non-physical items", such as services, digital products and rentals.
Facebook is not involved in the payment process and does not charge for posting adverts at the moment.
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