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Instagram: A place to share photos (and guns) with your friends

Has Instagram really become a hot spot for gun sales?

Facebook’s photo sharing app Instagram will start showing ads in the timelines of U.S. users this week. They’ll look just like photos from your friends but with a little label that says “sponsored” on it. There are pitfalls for this sort of thing — once advertisers arrive, some loyal users may depart. But ads have always been part of the expected evolution of Instagram. In fact, the app’s already got advertising — for guns. Will Oremus at Slate recently wrote about this, and tells Marketplace Tech Host Ben Johnson how gun ads got into your feed. 

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