Summary
Thousands of Facebook and Instagram ads have illegally marketed gun silencers disguised as “fuel filters,” violating U.S. federal law and Meta’s ad policies.
These devices, linked to a Chinese drop-shipping network, are sold for as little as $50 and promoted using recycled videos and stolen content.
Despite some ad removals, new campaigns quickly reappear, targeting niche audiences, including military personnel.
The ads have sparked legal, cybersecurity, and national security concerns, with critics citing Meta’s insufficient transparency and moderation tools.
The US statutes limiting suppressors are just plain stupid. FWIW, in many places in Europe, suppressors are MANDATORY. Yet these devices which reduce obnoxious and potentially dangerous noise are taxed and regulated heavily in the US for some reason. I can only think that the legislators who wrote these statutes are stupid and probably based their laws against suppressors on their hilariously inaccurate depiction in spy movies. Almost all suppressors reduce really really really fucking loud shooting to really loud shooting. They serve to eliminate some noise pollution. What’s not to like?
A lot of our legal prohibitions are largely based on what legislators see reflected in pop-culture and hollywood, because hollywood never takes creative-liberties with portrayals of reality.
Both sides are clueless but in different ways. Dems want to ban rifles that look scary (because clearly that means they shoot bullets faster or some shit) while ignoring the overwhelming majority of gun crimes are pistol related (wow amazing a gun you can fit in a pocket gets used in more crimes then one you have to sling over your back), while republicans want to let 8 year olds have AK’s.
I think the idea of them being illegal is so that if you shoot someone you will be heard. That was always my understanding. If it’s silent you could shoot a bunch of people before anyone realizes making it more dangerous
In real life suppressors make guns go from painfully loud to just very loud. You’ll still be heard
If tech platforms are too large to properly police their endorsed content, then the only reasonable solution is to shut them down.
Please don’t forget that advertising on these platforms could be moderated if they so chose - it simply isn’t moderated for profitability reasons.
Don’t allow fucks like Meta to push a narrative that they’re simply unable to moderate content while making buckets full of money running a service business that doesn’t even need to exist.
100% this.
There’s no cosmic law that says you must build a sprawling social network. If you can’t build it safely, then don’t build it.
If someone build a very profitable machine in the town square that shot out rusty nails and killed people every so often, people would shut it down. Well, hopefully.
Wait, if they can’t get huge how are we going to get our most brilliant people like Mark Zuckerberg and Peter Theil the sorts of money they need to pull the levers of power?
Right, it’s not that they can’t, it’s that they don’t want to because if they actually cut all the grift they probably wouldn’t be profitable. Especially Meta, since no one gives a fuck about the Metaverse and they just had to pull their AI profiles because of bad response to them. Seriously adding fake profiles to their services because they need to pump engagement numbers, that means they’re failing if they’re turning to these absurd kind of tricks to keep engagement afloat. Being forced to regulate them would likely put them out of business.
Here’s an example from Ed Zitron:
In 2017, the document notes that engagement metrics started to dive, but the company’s focus on “Time Spent” meant that nobody noticed because the number that Mark Zuckerberg cared about went up, until the alarm was sound and Facebook moved to “Sessions.”
I think the advertising is moderated and that’s one reason why these things are being called fuel filters. It isn’t reasonable to expect Facebook moderators to distinguish a filter from a silencer that looks like a filter. I doubt I could do it myself, especially if it wasn’t specifically what I was looking for.
It isn’t reasonable to expect Facebook moderators to distinguish a filter from a silencer that looks like a filter.
Fuck that; of course we can! If the current mods are incompetent then Meta can fucking PAY MORE to hire competent ones. There is NO excuse.
it’s to get around the shitty automated moderation that facebook has, which seems to be all that is there, this fools no one with a pulse
I’d pretend to be outraged except I don’t give a shit. They could go after the Chinese companies for continuing to sell products they know are dangerous and/or illegal in the US but so far nobody has done that.
Suppressors should probably just be an over the counter item anyway, as they are in much of Europe. They are a hearing safety device. The NFA is bullshit.
I don’t particularly like the term Silencer. They are not silent, not even close, at least not the ones you just slap on to the end of the barrel.
They make the gun a little quieter as long as you use subsonic ammunition, quiet enough to likely not need hearing pro. Should still use that anyways, but still. These things won’t make it so your 007ing or Wick in the subway.
Yes exactly, that’s why they ARE NOT silencers, they are suppressors
Anyone seriously throwing around the term silencer doesn’t know what they’re talking about
Either they’re ignorant of them, or they are using a historically synonymous term
https://www.forgottenweapons.com/accessories/maxim-silencer/
Honestly, I don’t give a shit about silencers either, but I do care about fucking up Meta (which is fundamentally maniupulative and must be destroyed), so I’m perfectly happy for the law to come down on it like a ton of bricks.
Awesome, ill take a dozen
I remember seeing people push these on Facebook in 2015 til I left in 2017. One of those people was making ghost guns in California and ended up being targeted by a big ATF raid, so it’s not like this hasn’t been a known content issue to the feds
I wish they showed pictures because they actually are fuel filters, you need a threaded adapter but once you have that you could just as easily get the right size filter from autozone and screw it on the firearm. Idk if what they’re referencing came with and adapter or not because theres no pictures or mention of it.
I know the things you’re talking about, basically a thread adapter to screw an off-the shelf oil filter from auto zone or wherever onto your gun, and the first shot punched a hole through the other side.
Also those adapters are legally considered a silencer and you still have to jump through all the same hoops to get one.
That’s not the thing I’ve been getting advertised to me on Facebook as an oil or fuel filter
The things I’m getting are a long thin metal tube with baffles inside and threads on one end that look basically like a textbook silencer/suppressor
I also see them getting advertised as “solvent traps” for gun cleaning, which I suppose is marginally better than they’re advertising it for some sort of firearm use, but I know a silencer when I see one.
Also if you’re using so much solvent that you have it oozing out the barrel while you’re cleaning the gun and feel like you need some sort of device to contain it, that’s a pretty sure sign that you’re using way too much solvent.
Unless maybe you’ve just pulled a Soviet surplus Mosin Nagant out of a crate and need to clean 50 years of caked-on cosmoline off of the whole damn rifle. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a mosin with a threaded barrel though.
And I can’t think of any good reason that trap would have a hole at both ends, kind of seems like that defeats the stated purpose of trapping the solvent.
I think you’re thinking of oil filter suppressors. They do require an adapter, but the ones the article is talking about are straight up firearm suppressors, they just don’t drill the hole in one end. Otherwise its a complete purpose built suppressor.
Wild, do they have boosters in them and all? I’d not expect one that costs 50 bucks to tbh.
The $50 ones have little stamped steel baffles in them, but I’ve seen pricier ones with machined aluminum cores for like $120.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=fuel+filter+silencer&t=fpas&iax=images&ia=images
I couldn’t find any on AliExpress, but you can still find the oil filter adapters.
Honesty better baffles than Id expext there, thats wild, looks like one or two has a booster or similar spring device too.
Zucc has no lower limit
They’re still there!
