https://sputnikglobe.com/20220413/report-wildlife-trafficking-booming-on-facebook-as-platform-recommends-trade-groups-to-users-1094743820.html
Report: Wildlife Trafficking Booming on Facebook as Platform Recommends Trade Groups to Users
Report: Wildlife Trafficking Booming on Facebook as Platform Recommends Trade Groups to Users
Sputnik International
Despite multiple reports and studies over the years exposing the practice, illicit exotic animals are still for sale on the Facebook platform, and its parent... 13.04.2022, Sputnik International
2022-04-13T20:19+0000
2022-04-13T20:19+0000
2022-11-03T18:23+0000
meta
animal welfare
exotic pet
facebook
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Endangered and exotic animals, both alive and dead, are being sold on Facebook* and even pushed on users through Meta’s algorithmic recommendations.Researchers working for Avaaz, described as a global community campaign group, easily found 129 pieces of potentially harmful content. This research comes just a week after Vice published an article revealing much the same thing, and four years after Facebook co-founded the Coalition to End Wildlife Trafficking Online and stated their goal of ending 80% of online trafficking by 2020.However, researchers say that posts on Facebook’s own platform selling or seeking exotic animals have only increased since that goal was set.Tiger cubs, leopards, ocelots, pygmy marmosets and asiatic black bears are only a few of the animals available for sale on the social media platform found by Avaaz and Vice. Rhino horns and elephant tusks, two items often blamed for the near extinction of those two animals, were also listed for sale.Both outlets said it was extremely easy to contact sellers, find out the price and set up a location to buy the animal. Though neither went through with a sale or exchanged any money with sellers, getting to the point right before that was not difficult. Vice said it took less than 24 hours for them to set up a deal.Facebook’s enforcement arm seems either ill-equipped or unwilling to deal with the growing illicit exotic animal trade on its platform. Of the 129 posts found by Avaaz researchers, 13% were removed before they could be reported, but another 43% remained up a week after researchers reported them to Facebook.In response, Meta provided Avaaz a quote touting their work fighting the illicit trade: “We’ve pioneered technology to help us find and remove this content; launched pop-up alerts to discourage people from participating in this trade. Between January and May 2021 in Indonesia and the Philippines alone, we removed over 1,900 Facebook Groups linked to wildlife trafficking as a result. This is an adversarial space though, and the people behind this awful activity are persistent and constantly evolving their tactics to try and evade these efforts.”Despite those efforts, the Avaaz researchers were able to easily find illicit listings without any training or expertise in doing so. Researchers simply entered simple terms like “monkey for sale” or “buy a tiger” in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and in the case of Vice, Burmese, and found results. Occasionally when searching in English, a pop-up would appear saying that sales of animals are prohibited on Facebook, but researchers still had little difficulty finding results.Worse still, Facebook’s recommendation algorithms started directing researchers to groups selling exotic animals. In the case of Azaav, Facebook made 95 recommendations during and after their research, and 76% of them were people looking to buy or sell animals.As Vice points out, the illegal exotic animal trade is almost entirely absent from the dark web marketplaces that are generally associated with illegal trade online. Partially because many of the popular marketplaces ban the practice, preferring what they see as victimless crimes: drugs, guns and fake identification cards and passports, but also because selling exotic animals on the clear net is easy and seemingly risk free.The Natural Resources Defense Council says that the exotic animal trade is the second biggest threat to endangered animals around the world, second only to habitat loss. They cite a recent study that says that 958 different species are at risk of extinction because of the international animal trade.*Meta, who owns Facebook, is an organization outlawed in Russia
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meta, animal welfare, exotic pet, facebook
meta, animal welfare, exotic pet, facebook
Report: Wildlife Trafficking Booming on Facebook as Platform Recommends Trade Groups to Users
20:19 GMT 13.04.2022 (Updated: 18:23 GMT 03.11.2022) Despite multiple reports and studies over the years exposing the practice, illicit exotic animals are still for sale on the Facebook platform, and its parent company Meta* seems unable to rise to the challenge.
Endangered and exotic animals, both alive and dead, are being sold on Facebook* and even pushed on users through Meta’s algorithmic recommendations.
Researchers working for Avaaz, described as a global community campaign group,
easily found 129 pieces of potentially harmful content. This research comes just a week after Vice published
an article revealing much the same thing, and four years after Facebook co-founded the Coalition to End Wildlife Trafficking Online and stated their goal of ending 80% of online trafficking by 2020.
However, researchers say that posts on Facebook’s own platform selling or seeking exotic animals have only increased since that goal was set.
Tiger cubs, leopards, ocelots, pygmy marmosets and asiatic black bears are only a few of the animals available for sale on the social media platform found by Avaaz and Vice. Rhino horns and elephant tusks, two items often blamed for the near extinction of those two animals, were also listed for sale.
Both outlets said it was extremely easy to contact sellers, find out the price and set up a location to buy the animal. Though neither went through with a sale or exchanged any money with sellers, getting to the point right before that was not difficult. Vice said it took less than 24 hours for them to set up a deal.
Facebook’s enforcement arm seems either ill-equipped or unwilling to deal with the growing illicit exotic animal trade on its platform. Of the 129 posts found by Avaaz researchers, 13% were removed before they could be reported, but another 43% remained up a week after researchers reported them to Facebook.
In response, Meta provided Avaaz a quote touting their work fighting the illicit trade: “We’ve pioneered technology to help us find and remove this content; launched pop-up alerts to discourage people from participating in this trade. Between January and May 2021 in Indonesia and the Philippines alone, we removed over 1,900 Facebook Groups linked to wildlife trafficking as a result. This is an adversarial space though, and the people behind this awful activity are persistent and constantly evolving their tactics to try and evade these efforts.”
Despite those efforts, the Avaaz researchers were able to easily find illicit listings without any training or expertise in doing so. Researchers simply entered simple terms like “monkey for sale” or “buy a tiger” in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and in the case of Vice, Burmese, and found results. Occasionally when searching in English, a pop-up would appear saying that sales of animals are prohibited on Facebook, but researchers still had little difficulty finding results.
Worse still, Facebook’s recommendation algorithms started directing researchers to groups selling exotic animals. In the case of Azaav, Facebook made 95 recommendations during and after their research, and 76% of them were people looking to buy or sell animals.
As Vice points out, the illegal exotic animal trade is almost entirely absent from the dark web marketplaces that are generally associated with illegal trade online. Partially because many of the popular marketplaces ban the practice, preferring what they see as victimless crimes: drugs, guns and fake identification cards and passports, but also because selling exotic animals on the clear net is easy and seemingly risk free.
The Natural Resources Defense Council says that the exotic animal trade is the
second biggest threat to endangered animals around the world, second only to habitat loss. They cite a recent study that says that 958 different species are at risk of extinction because of the international animal trade.
*Meta, who owns Facebook, is an organization outlawed in Russia
