Facebook bump stock ad shows it can't enforce its own basic rules

Not even 48-hours after the massacre in Las Vegas, Facebook slapped one of VICE News’ reporters with an ad for a bump stock, available for about $170 from the hunting goods superstore Cabela’s.

Facebook’s policy bans ads for firearms or firearm parts — so why was Cabela’s able to promote a device that essentially transforms semi-automatic weapons into fully-auto machine guns? Facebook doesn’t yet have any clear answers.

Bump stocks, which were invented in 2010, have been thrust into the spotlight ever since authorities revealed earlier this week that Las Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock was equipped with 12 of them when he mowed down festival goers from his hotel room on Sunday night. He fired nine rounds per second, killing 58 people and leaving nearly 500 wounded.

Ever since Facebook revealed that Russian operatives bought Facebook ads in order to influence the 2016 election — at the urging of government investigators — the company has struggled to explain how it monitors the content of the millions of ads it serves to over 1.3 billion users a day. But the bump stock flap shows Facebook has trouble enforcing even the most basic rules over its’ sprawling ad system, which generated $9.2 billion in revenue in the most recent quarter, a 48 percent increase from the prior year.

READ: Facebook tried to sell me a bump stock like the Vegas gunman used

Facebook spokespersons say that they weren’t totally sure what broke down in Facebook’s vetting system that allowed Cabela’s to advertise bump stocks on their platform in the first place, but they have since taken down the ad. The company first banned the private sale of firearms and their accessories in January 2016, although people were still finding loopholes months after after the ban was implemented.

“We were extremely upset to find a tool that can be used to enhance weapons was being advertised on our platform,” Monika Bickert, Head of Global Policy Management, said in a statement to VICE News. “I want to be clear: this is absolutely a violation of our policy that prohibits ‘the sale of weapons, including firearms and firearm parts.”

Facebook’s advertising review team — which uses a mix of human and software automation — is supposed to review each individual product sold by an online retailer before they get the go-ahead to target people on their Facebook feed with ads. The company has repeatedly said that it is the responsibility of ad buyers to abide by Facebook rules and advertising laws, and it recently announced that it was planning add 1,000 staffers to its “global ads review” team in order to better catch ads that break the rules.

READ: Facebook reveals 10 million people saw Russian troll ads during the election

The “retargeting” strategy — for example, if you absentmindedly browse gym membership online, only to see ads for it show up on your Facebook newsfeed — has been a staple of the internet advertising business for years; Facebook and Google, which are the most dominant digital ad vendors on the internet, are also the most notorious for tracking users’ web browsing for retargeting ads.

Representatives for Cabela’s parent company, Bass Pro Shops, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The company, like other retailers, appears to have pulled bump stocks from its website since the Sunday night shooting in Las Vegas.