Arms dealers thrive on Facebook: report

Small arms and light weapons are being sold on Facebook ''arms bazaars,'' The New York Times reported.

According to the report, after the Times provided Facebook with seven instances of suspicious groups, the social network shut down six of them.

The private sale of guns and ammunition on the social network, and its subsidiary Instagram, was banned by Facebook earlier this year.

The newspaper based its findings on a study released by Armament Research Services (ARES), which highlighted the online trade of light weapons in Libya. The findings were also based on the Times' own reporting of similar trafficking in Syria, Iraq and Yemen.

According to the ARES study, the 2011 revolution in Libya ended the Libyan state's regulation of the arms trade after which military stockpiles were raided and private individuals and non-state armed groups got hold of the weapons.

''From a virtually non-existent domestic market, the revolution and its aftermath paved the way for a large illicit arms trade to emerge,'' said the study. ''Many of the players in this new market began to use new technologies to hawk their wares. Online sales via social media platforms are one of the tools currently being used for this purpose.''

Libya alone, had since 2014, seen 97 documented attempts at the unregulated transfer of missiles, grenade launchers, rockets, and various rifles, through Facebook groups. It was thought that some of the weapons being resold, including a component of an anti-aircraft defense system were looted from Libyan state custody after the death of the country's ruler Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi in 2011.

Meanwhile, in Iraq, clandestine Facebook groups had been selling a wide variety of weapons originally provided by the Pentagon to the country's government, including rifles, assault rifles, sub-machine guns, and pistols.

Many of these still carried inventory stickers and aftermarket add-ons preferred by US forces and soldiers.