WhatsApp firearms trade thrives in India, Digital Witness Lab finds - Rest of World

An analysis of more than 8,000 messages by Digital Witness Lab at Princeton University finds the Meta-owned platform is a thriving illegal firearms marketplace.

Munira Mutaher/Rest of World By Yashraj Sharma 4 March 2025 • New Delhi, India Researchers found messages advertising guns across 234 publicly accessible WhatsApp groups in India, which violates Meta’s policies prohibiting firearm sales. The names and descriptions of some groups contain references to gun sales, which can easily be monitored by WhatsApp. The company has faced similar allegations globally. Earlier studies found instances of firearms-related advertisements on Meta’s platforms in the U.S. and the European Union. When Rahul, a gun seller from the north Indian state of Uttar Pr

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