The popular Facebook page, Yass and Surrounds – BUY SELL SWAP, has been disabled for 30 days due to a community standard infringement on regulated goods.
Kirstin Brinbaumer, who started the group nearly eight years ago, says she requested a review but for now the page will remain inaccessible till October 24.
“We have had warnings about posts that don’t comply but never had the page disabled,” she said.
After requesting a review Kristin and the other group admins received the notice: “Your group has been disabled because it doesn’t follow our community standards on regulated goods. An admin has requested that we review this decision, and we’ll send you an update soon.”
“This is because Yass and Surrounds – BUY SELL SWAP goes against our Community Standards on guns, animals and other regulated goods.”
“We have these standards to encourage safety and compliance with common legal restrictions.”
The popular page has grown to nearly 20,000 members and averages about 1900 posts per month.
“This hasn’t been an issue in our group as the members are largely respectful, when a member is rude and goes against the rules, swearing at other members, abusing other members etc., they are removed from the group,” Kristin said.
However, Kristin says the group incurs violations daily from people selling items that go against Facebook’s Community Standards and Commerce Policies.
Each violation has a 24-hour window to be either accepted or rejected but unfortunately, Yass and Surrounds’ group only has three admins. Kristin says it seems there has been a violation or more than one that has slipped past.
According to Facebook’s Transparency Centre, their Commerce Policies provide rules on the types of products and services that can be offered for sale.
The list of prohibited content may surprise even some of Facebook’s most devout users with alcohol, animals (excluding livestock), drugs, and even used cosmetics making the list.
Some other notable mentions include tobacco products, weapons, ammunition and explosives, stolen goods, ingestible supplements, gambling, real or fake documents and currency, adult products, and body parts and fluids.
However, legitimate brick-and-mortar businesses including retail business websites can continue using Facebook to promote and sell their products.
The social media company also notes that failure to comply with these policies may result in a variety of consequences.
Including, but not limited to, removal of listings and other content, rejection of product tags, or suspension or termination of access to any or all of Facebook’s features.
For the full list of prohibited content check out Facebook’s terms and policies.
