Facebook's new trading post platform Marketplace was launched on Monday. Originally started in Facebook's Groups division, Marketplace was created for the 450 million Facebook users who have iOS and Android smartphones. It's comparable to Craigslist—a place where you can buy, sell, and barter just about anything on earth. But just one day after its release to the public, black market sellers are swiftly flocking to it in droves like fans spotting and chasing after Lil Uzi Vert.
According to Mic.com, Marketplace sellers have displayed the underbelly of the internet, where semi-automatic weapons, alcohol, illicit drugs (and weed, if you consider that a drug), sex, and even Harambe memes are sold. It reportedly only took just a few hours after Marketplace's launch for sellers to use it as their own Dark Net-style forum to sell the most decadent and dangerous items that money can buy.
Facebook, of course, has a policy for users to report posts and items listed on its platform that are suspected to be harmful or offensive to other users. Mary Ku, the company's director of product management, released a statement about how Facebook's technicians have been working around the clock to police the posts and delete the black market sellers off the site, and apologized to its users for the debacle upon the launch.
"As we expanded Marketplace access, we encountered a technical issue that prevented our reviewing system from identifying some posts that violated our Commerce Policies and Community Standards," Ku stated. She continued, "As a result, certain posts with content that violated our policies were made visible to people visiting Marketplace. We are working to fix the problem and will be closely monitoring our systems to ensure we are properly identifying and removing violations before giving more people access to Marketplace. We apologize for this issue."
