Facebook facilitates and profits from the sale of endangered species and animal parts on its platform, according to a complaint from a US whistleblowing law firm.
Kohn, Kohn and Colapinto (KKC) alleges that advertisements from major blue chip firms are appearing on Facebook pages belonging to wildlife traffickers that use the platform to sell items such as ivory, rhino horn and tiger teeth to overseas buyers.
In a complaint filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in August of last year, KKC alleges that the social media giant, which is currently under pressure for allowing Cambridge Analytica to harvest the data of millions of its users, knowingly allows advertising to be sold on pages that are used to offer endangered species animal parts.
Acting on behalf of an anonymous whistleblower, KKC said: “The amount of wildlife being traded on closed and secret groups on Facebook is horrifying.
“We saw multiple products: rhino horn, bear claws, tiger skins, reptiles, and tons and tons of ivory.
“At a time when the world is losing 30,000 elephants a year to poachers, the amount of ivory sold on Facebook is particularly shocking.
“Through months of undercover work, we were able to identify more than one dozen distinct networks operating on Facebook.
“We travelled to Vietnam and Laos to meet with a number of ivory traders in person, confirming that they were actively selling ivory and other endangered wildlife products.”
Facebook, whose founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg yesterday appeared before Congress to provide evidence on the Cambridge Analytica scandal, has failed to respond to requests for comment on the wildlife trafficking allegations.
Stephen Kohn, Executive Director of the National Whistleblower Center, said Facebook cannot claim it is an innocent bystander to these alleged crimes, noting that the company approved the sale of advertising on pages from which it would have known ivory was being sold.
Only last month, Facebook was among a number of tech firms to team up with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to launch the Global Coalition to End Wildlife Trafficking Online, which is intended to stop poachers and traffickers taking advantage of online technology.
Speaking at the launch of the initiative, Crawford Allan, Senior Director of Wildlife Crime at the WWF, said: “Criminal groups and illegal traders are exploiting the technology to operate anonymously online with less chance of detection and to reach a wider market than ever before.
“The companies themselves were the obvious answer. If the companies can take down the ads before they’re even posted, we’re in good shape.”
Poachers and wildlife traffickers have proved adept at using online tools to expand their sales channels, which were traditionally limited to local physical markets prior to the spread of the internet.
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