Facebook recently started to crack down on pro-Second Amendment pages, completely removing several including our friends at 556 Tactical and AR-15 NewsÂ among others.Â For those of us who use Facebook, this is obviously a bit alarming. After speaking with the owners of 556 Tactical and AR-15 News, as well as re-reading Facebook Page and Ad Guidelines, here’s the situation as I see it, and what I think we should do about it.

First, let’s get on the same page with our terminology.

A Facebook page isÂ for an organization, business, celebrity, brand, etc, an example of which is the Monderno Facebook page.Â A Facebook profile is for an individual for personal use, likeÂ my Facebook profile. The difference matters.

What’s Going On

In short, just about anything pro-Second Amendment seems to be in violation of Facebook policies. According to Facebook Page Guidelines, page post content, along with ads and commercial content, is subject to Facebook Advertising Guidelines.

Ads and commercial content (including Page post content) are subject to the Advertising Guidelines.

Looking at the advertising guidelines, the underlying problem is identified:

Ads may not promote the sale or use of weapons, ammunition, or explosives.

From the language above, it looks like any post on Facebook, by a Facebook page, that promotes the use of weapons is against Facebook guidelines. This means that any pro-Second Amendment Facebook page could be taken down at any time.

Sources

How It Happened

The short version is that a liberal website posted an article calling out 556 Tactical, AR-15 News and Pittsburgh Tactical Firearms for giving away firearms on Facebook. I’m not linking to that post and any comments that do so will be deleted. We do NOT need to be giving them anymore exposure.

What We Can Do

First off, we can complain. If enough of us contact Facebook and give them negative feedback on these policies, there’s a chance Facebook will change them.

Contact Facebook here, select the “Negative” option, and in the text area for feedback, politely and respectfully let Facebook know that you want their policies changed.

We can also spend our time on other social media platforms that appreciate the Second Amendment, or at the very least, don’t censor it. Here are some options.

Pheed (Update 4/21/2013)

I just found this today thanks to a comment on Facebook. I signed up and so far I’m very impressed. This has a very real chance of surpassing Facebook in popularity.

Sign up for a free account and follow us on Pheed.

Shooters Legion

Shooters Legion, as the name suggests, is a social network for shooters. It has some similar functionality of Facebook, but I’ll be honest, it’s still a little rough. This one has a lot of potential though, and I’m excited to see where it goes.

Sign up for a free account and join the Monderno group on Shooters Legion.

Gunway

Gunway is essentially Pinterest for the firearms community. You can post images with links and text, and then users can comment on posts.

Sign up for a free account and follow us on Gunway.

Twitter

Twitter has nowhere near the functionality of Facebook (for example, group discussions are all but impossible), but can still be a great way to keep up with your friends and favorite companies. Posts on Twitter (called “tweets”) are limited to 160 characters, so the experience is definitely different to that of Facebook.

Sign up for a free account and follow us on Twitter.

Instagram

Instagram is essentially a photo sharing social network. Once you post a photo, people can like the photo as well as comment on it. I really like Instagram, and I have all but stopped referring to it as “hipstergram”. It used to be iPhone only, but has since branched to Android and is coming to Windows Phone soon.

Sign up for a free account and follow us on Instagram.

Email Newsletter

If you want to keep up with our posts on Monderno.com, sign up for our email newsletter. On the right hand side of your screen near the top you’ll see “Subscribe Via Email” – this will add you to our email notification list. Please note that we do not share this list with anyone, and that we respect your privacy.

Wrapping Up

I’ll share more information once I have it. Now that the playbook has been identified (see the How It Happened section above) I think we can expect more of this in the future. If my Facebook page is shut down, so be it. You can connect with us on one of the above social media platforms, and the website isn’t going anywhere.