Facebook is the most commonly used social media platform for human sex trafficking recruitment in the US, according to a new report published by the Human Trafficking Institute.
Last year, 59 percent of victims in active cases who were recruited through social media were found through Facebook, the report states, with 41 percent of all recruitment taking place online.
“The Internet has become the dominant tool that traffickers use to recruit victims, and they often recruit them on a number of very common social networking websites,” Victor Boutros, CEO of the Human Trafficking Institute, told CBS News. “Facebook overwhelmingly is used by traffickers to recruit victims in active sex trafficking cases.”
The 2020 Federal Human Trafficking Report draws its data from active federal criminal and civil human trafficking cases.
[...] Part of the reason why the Internet—and likely Facebook by extension—is so prevalent in the report is because it only considers federal cases. In those cases, law enforcement appears to rely heavily on the Internet for its investigations.
Related Stories
Facebook’s latest “apology” reveals security and safety disarray:
Facebook had it rough last week. Leaked documents—many leaked documents—formed the backbone of a string of reports published in The Wall Street Journal. Together, the stories paint the picture of a company barely in control of its own creation. The revelations run the gamut: Facebook had created special rules for VIPs that largely exempted 5.8 million users from moderation, forced troll farm content on 40 percent of America, created toxic conditions for teen girls, ignored cartels and human traffickers, and even undermined CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s own desire to promote vaccination against COVID.
Now, Facebook wants you to know it’s sorry and that it’s trying to do better.
“In the past, we didn’t address safety and security challenges early enough in the product development process,” the company said in an unsigned press release today. “Instead, we made improvements reactively in response to a specific abuse. But we have fundamentally changed that approach.”
Previously:
Facebook Documents Show How Toxic Instagram is for Teens, Wall Street Journal Reports
Leaked Documents Reveal the Special Rules Facebook Uses for 5.8M VIPs
Facebook is a Hub of Sex Trafficking Recruitment in the US, Report Says
Instagram is "Most Invasive App", New Study Shows
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 16 2021, @12:46AM (22 children)
It's called fuckbook for reason(s).
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 16 2021, @12:55AM (21 children)
Just legalize prostitution already. The solo practitioners will suffocate the sex trafficking. Then it will become the #1 form of employment after Amazon's and McDonald's fire their workers.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 16 2021, @01:16AM (1 child)
Either way, Jews are and will be the pimps running from and profiting from the trafficking. You didn't think all those perfectly-arranged and designed bedroom sets Onlyfans ladies use are their real bedrooms, did you? Jews in L.A. and Orange County literally run these shows out of small apartment complexes they own, that have been converted into sets with their designers carefully curating images through interior design.
But you knew that, didn't you? Surely you've interacted with enough females in real life to realize that fucking none of them actually have fuzzy pink shit all over their bedrooms, and the only people who do unironically are male trannies. Either way, Jews are behind it. Their charities need to turn a profit while destroying America, and it's either selling these ladies or harvesting their organs. Facebook, by the way, is allowed to do this because they are Jew-run.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 16 2021, @03:24AM
Finally, we spam mod the anti-semitic incels who cannot even pay to get laid! Question: how many spam mods can be given to any one spam mod worthy comment?
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 16 2021, @01:16AM (18 children)
Once they legalized prostitution, criminal gangs, both domestic and foreign, "import" young girls from poorer countries and the criminal abuse exacerbates.
It's like communism - seems like a good idea at first, but once in practice, the shit gets fucked up beyond imagination.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 16 2021, @02:06AM
So what you're saying is, Jews are responsible for that human trafficking?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Wednesday June 16 2021, @02:13AM (15 children)
Did they actually legalize [wikipedia.org] prostitution in the first place?
Five years in and they were already closing down legal prostitution venues - this is not the sign of a healthy legal market. I see also that portions of the country had never approved prostitution businesses in the first place and hence, de facto illegalized prostitution.
If you have a strong legal market, it will crowd out the illegal. Legal prostitutes don't have to be smuggled from anywhere, don't have to be threatened to force to work, and aren't at risk of losing their assets to law enforcement because they aren't breaking the law.
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Wednesday June 16 2021, @02:28AM (5 children)
With the caveat that it's sometimes more profitable to do those things anyway.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday June 16 2021, @02:40AM (4 children)
Only if the illegal market is just as legal as the legal market.
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Thursday June 17 2021, @11:53PM (3 children)
Just as apparently legal to the customer.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday June 18 2021, @03:08AM (2 children)
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Friday June 18 2021, @02:03PM (1 child)
Let me tell you about modern corporate accounting.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday June 19 2021, @12:17AM
For illegal prostitution to hold its own against legal prostitution, there has to be a lot problems both with legalization and enforcement. No industry will fare well, when legalization is severely restricted/punished and enforcement against illegal operators is lax.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 16 2021, @02:47AM (5 children)
You are just like them commies - "if you had 'true' communism..."
Simply legalizing doesn't work. You need to go after all the domestic and foreign criminal gangs to enforce the law, lots of money, lots of manpower, and the political will.
Face the fact. The Dutch tried legalization as a pragmatic policy, but the society as a whole doesn't care THAT much about the underground world and its abuse to devote so much of their national resources.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 16 2021, @02:58AM
That's too bad. Well, at least legalization lets you partake without getting caught up in a sting op. Good enough.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by khallow on Wednesday June 16 2021, @03:03AM (3 children)
I guess you missed the part where the Netherlands didn't simply legalize.
The Netherlands should be doing that anyway, right?
An enforcement problem is not a legalization problem. Legal prostitution should have huge advantages over that "underground world". But as I note, when illegal prostitution is just as legal as legal prostitution, then those advantages don't exist.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 16 2021, @03:16AM (2 children)
"An enforcement problem is not a legalization problem."
You are living in the lala land.
What good are the "laws" when they will/can not be enforced?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday June 16 2021, @11:03AM (1 child)
Your question admits that such laws aren't "simply legalizing", but instead throwing the market into a state where legal prostitution operates at a substantial disadvantage. This really is a "if you had 'true' legalization..." rebuttal.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 16 2021, @03:01PM
Yeah, leave it khallow to wish a gig economy for sex workers and then call it the pinnacle of civilization. Because, see?, no pimps, only UberSex.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 16 2021, @03:27AM
As khallow drives to his winter lodgings, snowbirding it out of the Backbone of America, and crossing the Great State of Sin, Nevada, somewhere near, or in proximity to, the Mustang Ranch. A khallow has got to do, what a libertarian transactional sex market says he's gotta do. Use protection, khallow! Wear a mask!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 16 2021, @02:41PM
But what if the illegal product is different from the legal product? The customer may prefer the illegal for various reasons.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 16 2021, @11:10PM
That is a remarkably bad Wikipedia article, it's not supported by many citations and is written like an oral history rather than a proper article. It's not very credible. However, it is more or less similar to the better known situation in neighboring Germany, in which the authorities are only interested in collecting their tax receipts and not in any way interested in actually removing organized crime from the picture. It's always been legal to collect garbage in New York, but that doesn't mean that the Mafia wasn't involved.
Let me compare to the situation with marijuana legalization, since I live in Colorado. Legalization did not end the illegal marijuana trade. Legal marijuana is more expensive because it is heavily taxed on both ends (the licensing of the business, and then taxes on the actual marijuana). Nevertheless it is a big improvement for most people, because regardless of how you got your marijuana, you cannot be arrested for possessing it, at least in typical quantities for personal use.
But the sex trade does not work like this. The risk of arrest is not the primary deterrent from getting into the trade. Nor is it something that can be used as a pretense for harassment by the police ("I think I smell a prostitute in your car"). Meanwhile the actual victims of sex trafficking are still under the control of the pimps, and legalization of prostitution does not help, because they are still under threat of violence and are often in the country illegally. The legality of prostitution was never their worst problem.
In neither case did demand change all that much. The risk (to the purchaser) is not that much, it is not all that hard to find on the illegal market, and most people make their decision about whether to buy without much regard to the legality. Demand probably increased some, but not dramatically.
The problem doesn't even end with legalization going forward, because most of the prostitutes are foreigners. While some women are happy to work in the profession, as long as there is a social stigma attached, there will likely be an inadequate supply. And that stigma will not change quickly if it even changes at all. Higher wages would help, but that isn't easy because increased prices in the legal market just make the illegal market more appealing. The situation is not that different from that of illegal migrant workers in the USA, there is an inadequate supply of citizens willing to do certain types of work at low wages, and businesses can save money by hiring the people who are, without regard to their status. So it persists, even though the underlying work is completely legal in most cases.
So the problem is not that "legalization doesn't work" but rather "legalization by itself is inadequate." To solve the problem, sex trafficking must become more expensive than the legal sex trade...which must also become more expensive, so that it can pay better. In other words, legalization is necessary to end sex trafficking, but it should not be expected to change the necessary diplomatic and law enforcement work very much.
(Score: 0, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 16 2021, @08:34AM
There is a big supply and demand problem with prostitution. Legalize prostitution and demand skyrockets. Supply takes a much longer period of time to ramp up. This leaves a large gap in the white market, which causes the grey and black markets to have to fill in that gap. With the motivation provided by the large amounts of money involved and the fact that the production does not scale, it isn't surprising that things like that can happen, especially in the short term.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 16 2021, @12:49AM (3 children)
Half the readers are incel, the other half are pink-hair trannies.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 16 2021, @12:53AM
They are match made in heaven, like literally.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 16 2021, @12:58AM
I'll buy your virginity for $5.
(Score: 2) by Tork on Wednesday June 16 2021, @01:18AM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 16 2021, @12:52AM
The article is short on specific details which I need to verify these allegations.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 16 2021, @01:51AM (1 child)
A hub for recruitment of LEA decoys, maybe. Beyond that, it's LEA decoys and suspects, stem to stearn. Here in the fake-verse, there is no opposing gender, only tricks and traps.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 16 2021, @08:48AM
Welcome to the Internet, where men are men, women are men and the children are FBI agents.
A trope as old as the internet https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ThereAreNoGirlsOnTheInternet [tvtropes.org]
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 16 2021, @02:41AM (2 children)
They recruited people? Or they victimized people?
I guess it's just another scenario of someone doing what someone else doesn't want, lawsuits, and charging people with everything see-what-sticks until they end up in jail again. Shit "Recruiting victims." Heh.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 16 2021, @03:10AM
And a lot of problems, real and imagined, will disappear at once.
As long lies are safe and profitable, they increase. The more they increase, the more things that depend on real information, fail.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 16 2021, @06:44PM
Yeah, I'm a victim too because I need to work to earn a living.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by ElizabethGreene on Wednesday June 16 2021, @03:00AM
Federal statistics: The DOJ reported 454 and 501 sex trafficking convictions in 2019 and 2018 respectively. Victim aid groups reported 5090 and 4739 new cases in those two years and 62% of those cases were victims of sex trafficking.
Source: https://www.state.gov/reports/2020-trafficking-in-persons-report/united-states/ [state.gov]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by sydbarrett74 on Wednesday June 16 2021, @04:42AM
...Facebook started life as FaceMash, a 'hot-or-not' kind of site where Zuck and his (exclusively male) buddies could rate how fuckable their coeds were.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 16 2021, @12:05PM
trifecta for hiring a person into a prominent position these days
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 16 2021, @02:25PM
sounds about right to me
(Score: 1) by Coligny on Thursday June 17 2021, @02:36AM
Wait until the feds discover Reddit…
And stock on propcrorm
If I wanted to be moderated by mor0nic groupthinking retards I would still be on Digg and Reddshit.