[This story appeared first on CNN]
(CNN) Facebook will unveil a new policy on Wednesday to restrict sales and limit content related to alcohol and tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, a company spokeswoman tells CNN.
The new policy will prohibit all private sales, trades, transfers and gifting of alcohol and tobacco products on Facebook and Instagram, the spokeswoman said. Any brands that post content related to the sale or transfer of these products will have to restrict that content to adults 18 or older. (21+ in the US).
The new policy will go into effect Wednesday and will also apply to any Facebook groups created to sell alcohol or tobacco products, the spokeswoman said. The social network is reaching out to group administrators to alert them of the changes.
The company is enforcing the new rules, the spokeswoman said, and may remove any groups that do not make necessary changes. While the company’s policies already prohibit the sale of tobacco and alcohol in Facebook Marketplace, the platform is extending its ban to “organic content” — regular posts from private users.
The company will “use a combination of technology, human review and reports from our community to find and remove any content that violates these policies,” the spokeswoman said.
Is your winery Facebook Page setup correctly to avoid being banned?
There is no definite way to tell how soon and how aggressively will Facebook enforce this recent policy. Make sure your Facebook page settings are set up to target only people of 21+ years or older. Here is a short video on how to do it:
