Facebook Bans Antiquities Trade

June 24 2020

Image of Facebook Bans Antiquities Trade

Picture: BBC

Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:

The BBC reports that social media giant Facebook has banned all trade in ancient artefacts on its platforms. This follows a successful campaign exposing how looted antiquities from war-torn zones of the Middle East have been experiencing a boom in trade online. 

Specifically, the ban includes any content that:

encourages or attempts to buy, sell or trade historical artefacts or attempts to solicit historical artefacts.

This seems to be trying to deal specifically in the realms of antiquities, which has been haunted by such problems for a long time. Let's hope these new rules don't eventually spill over the world of fine art and antiques. It is remarkable how popular buying through the Facebook-owned platform Instagram has become.

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