US politicians: Facebook and Google must block 3D-printed weapons blueprints

Five US Democratic senators have called on Facebook, Twitter, Google, Microsoft, Craiglist, Reddit and Yahoo to block or severely restrict access to blueprints for 3D-printed firearms on their platforms.

In the letter, the senators express their concerns about the fact that the American company Defense Distributed recently announced that it would put blueprints online for making the plastic firearms with 3D printers. In doing so, they point out to each of the aforementioned technology companies its own general terms and conditions, which, for example, in the case of Twitter, state that glorification of violence and the promotion of weapons are not allowed. The senators call on the addressed tech companies to take proactive steps in accordance with their own rules to stop the online spread of dangerous 3D designs of weapons. Democratic politicians say there are reports that thousands of CAD files have already been downloaded.

The senators’ concerns stem from the plans of Cody Wilson, a champion of gun rights. He plans to put the engineering designs for plastic firearms online with his nonprofit Defense Distributed. He was in conflict with the US State Department about this, but the Department concluded in July that the publication of the blueprints does not violate export restrictions.

With that, the way seemed clear for Wilson to publish the blueprints, until an American judge put a stop to this in summary proceedings with a preliminary ruling. As a result, the federal government may not allow the distribution of downloadable designs for 3D-printed plastic weapons for the time being. It is still being litigated and there is a chance that this temporary ban will eventually disappear. The judge hinted at that possible outcome by saying that banning the publication of these blueprints poses serious issues with the First Amendment, which enshrines US constitutional freedom of expression.