SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Facebook has become a “thriving marketplace” for illegal online wildlife trading, allowing the sale of many critically endangered species, a report by the U.S.-based campaign group Avaaz said on Wednesday.
Avaaz researchers said an investigation into the social media platform uncovered 129 posts listing endangered species that were up for sale, including baby tigers, African grey parrots and the pygmy marmoset, the world’s smallest monkey.
“Avaaz’s research shows that, on Facebook, wildlife trafficking takes place in broad daylight,” said Ruth Delbaere, senior legal campaigner with Avaaz.
“By insufficiently enforcing its own policies, Facebook is enabling an international trade that has devastating effects on biodiversity and the stability of natural ecosystems,” Delbaere added.
Facebook’s guidelines prohibit content that seeks to buy, sell, trade, donate or gift endangered species or their parts.
A spokesperson for Facebook owner Meta told Reuters that it was unfair to judge the company’s enforcement efforts on the basis of just 129 posts and said it has removed pages that violate its policies.
“The results don’t reflect the extensive work we’ve done to combat wildlife trafficking on Facebook,” the spokesperson said, adding that the company has introduced technology to find and remove such content, and to warn users who search for it.
“This is an adversarial space though, and the people behind this awful activity are persistent and constantly evolving their tactics to try to evade those efforts,” the spokesperson said.
Illegal wildlife trafficking has been under the spotlight amid claims that the virus that causes COVID-19 might have crossed the species barrier from bats to humans via China’s extensive animal trading network.
Since early 2020, China has sought to crack down on the trading of all kinds of wildlife for food.
China’s Supreme Court also issued new guidelines last week saying legal efforts to combat trafficking should cover the entire criminal supply chain, from poaching to processing.
(Reporting by David Stanway; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
