Facebook and Instagram Ads Push Gun Silencers Disguised as Car Parts

image via WIRED

January 3, 2025, 11:30 AM

• •Thousands of ads on Facebook and Instagram have promoted “fuel filters” using videos demonstrating how they can be easily modified into gun silencers.
• •The ads don’t mention that building a silencer requires registering the device with the ATF.
• •Meta says it removed the ads and associated advertising accounts, but a quick search of Meta’s Ad Library revealed that nearly identical ones have since been published.

Thousands of ads on Facebook and Instagram have promoted “fuel filters” using videos demonstrating how they can be easily modified into gun silencers—a process that, without federal approval, could lead to felony charges. Despite Meta’s policies banning ads for silencers on the company’s social networks, the promotions have persisted for years, driven by what appears to be a single network of more than 100 Facebook pages marketing “fuel filters” that can be easily turned into gun silencers, WIRED has found. The devices sell for as little as $50.

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