3+ 1' "i 2 I STATE OF NEW YORK OFFICE OF ATTORNEY GENERAL 120 BROADWAY NEW YORK, NY 10271 ERIC T. SCI-LNEIDERMAN (212) 416-8050 ATTORNEY GENERAL November 7, 2013 Mark Zuckerberg Chief Executive Officer Facebook, Inc. 1 Hacker Way Menlo Park, CA 94025 Re: Potential Illegal Gun Sales Using Facebook Dear Mr. Zuckerberg: It has come to my attention that some Facebook users are using your service to facilitate sales of firearms in a manner that may violate New York law. This includes the sale of weapons like those used in the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. I write to request your assistance in preventing illegal private sales of firearms so that we can protect public safety and save lives. A recent review of Facebook found a number of groups in which users promoted the sale of assault rifles, handguns, rifles shotguns and gun parts. In numerous cases, buyers and sellers conducted negotiations in the "comments" sections of public-facing posts. These postings may be read by all Facebook users, including people located in New York who are prohibited from purchasing firearms by state and federal laws. In most cases, sellers and purchasers finalized sales through direct and private communications. It is unclear if sellers who used acebook ever conducted checks of buyers' backgrounds or verified their ages. The absence of these safeguards could allow dangerous individuals to purchase firearms, including criminals, terrorists and weapons traffickers. It may also be possible for children, who frequently use popular social media sites like Facebook, to purchase dangerous weapons. As recent history has shown, the combination of children and firearms can have disastrous consequences. Private sales, in which sellers often are not licensed dealers, represent roughly 40 percent of all sales in the United States, and a growing number of them are taking place online. Gaps in federal law have allowed guns to flow freely through this pipeline with potentially deadly results. In 2011, investigators for the City of New York found that 62 percent of private sellers who advertised online agreed to sell guns to investigators who plainly said they were not likely to pass a background check. New York and 16 other states have taken action to close the private gun sale background check loophole. As of March 15, 2013, private sellers in New York are required by law to perform background checks on prospective firearms purchasers. This represents a crucial achievement for public safety in our state. Yet the ease with which buyers who cannot pass a background check can skirt the law by purchasing a weapon online could limit the law's effectiveness. As New York Statc's chief law enforcement official, I am committed to ensuring that this does not occur. acebook's Advertising Guidelines prohibit paid advertisers from promoting weapons sales, so I hope you will agree that the platforrn's use by individual users as a vehicle for illegal gun sales is alarming and unacceptable. My office has worked collaboratively with 35 gun show operators in New York to develop a voluntary set of Model Procedures, which require sellers to ensure that a criminal background check is performed in connection with every sale. All gun shows in New York will now follow these procedures. I hope we can take a similarly collaborative approach. As the world's largest social networking service, Facebook is in the unique position to establish model practices in this area, including by amending its Community Standards and Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, which do not expressly prohibit weapons sales; monitoring reports generated through the user-generated "report" feature; and creating automated processes to alert Facebook of postings that may involve the sale of weapons. We would like to explore these and other options with you. Please contact James Katz in my office at (212) 416- 6492 to schedule a meeting to discuss the issue further. Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. Regards, Schneidcrman cc: Colin Stretch, Vice President General Counsel Will Castleberry, Director of Public Policy See, Guns for Sale, (last visited Nov. 1, 2013). "Guns for Sale" presently has over l80,000 "likes."