Facebook Allegedly Making Profit on Wildlife Trafficking of Endangered Species

An Associated Press article indicates that Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook are making a profit by selling ads on pages that are operated by illegal wildlife traffickers. The pages sell the body parts of endangered animals, according to a complaint filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Facebook has allegedly been making money off of the sellers of items like elephant ivory, rhino horns and tiger teeth. The article from the  Associated Press includes a screen grab of a Facebookgroup page displaying buckets full of the teeth. See atop this page.

According to the complaint, Facebook is violating its responsibilities as a publicly-traded company by knowingly profiting from the criminal trafficking of endangered species. The anonymous whistleblower complaint was filed in August 2017 by the law firm of Kohn, Kohn and Colapinto.

Facebook released a statement saying it does not permit the sale of wildlife, endangered species or their parts, and that it removes groups that have been identified as engaging in illegal conduct. However according to the statement from Kohn, Kohn and Colapinto, a months-long investigation of various social media platforms by the law firm’s undercover team found “rampant wildlife activity in two places: Facebook and Instagram.”

Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/10/facebook-puts-ads-on-pages-illegally-selling-animal-parts.html

Christopher J. Gervais, FRGS
Twitter: @CJGERVAIS
Christopher@WCFF.org

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