Midwest Industries Inc. — a gun manufacturer in Waukesha, Wisconsin — announced the suspension of their Facebook page on Monday.
According to an Instagram post from Midwest, the company would not be able to select a winner of the company’s weekly, Friday Giveaway contest, as Facebook had blocked their page from posting for 24 hours.
“The hardest part about this is we try to follow their rules,” a Midwest spokesman told The Daily Caller. “If you look at their specific terms we aren’t violating any of them. It’s frustrating.”
“Whether you like Facebook or not, it’s a vital way of connecting” with potential consumers, he continued. “It’s not cool when you lose a way to communicate about your product.”
The spokesman confirmed that this is not Midwest’s first time being suspended by Facebook, though the company has never received what he viewed to be an adequate explanation as to which specific policy they are violating.
The latest post on Midwest’s Facebook page came Friday and announced the weekly giveaway.
Midwest had conducted these weekly giveaways dating back to at least November 2016.
Additionally, they had been giving away products on Facebook dating back to the page’s creation in 2012.
Facebook has cracked down on small gun manufacturers in the past.
In late 2017, Facebook blocked Pennsylvania’s “The Sporting Shop” from using the site’s marketing platform entirely. Facebook’s explanation for blocking the ads centered around The Sporting Shop’s sale of hunting and fishing equipment, which Facebook deemed “Prohibited Content.”
The Sporting Shop did not directly advertise firearms on Facebook, but according to Facebook officials, simply linking to a website where the sale of firearms occurred was enough to earn an advertising ban.