Human traffickers have taken to social media to find victims, with many contacted over apps under the Meta umbrella (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger). Florida Attorney General (AG) Ashley Moody is demanding Meta CEO, Mark Zuckerberg testify before the Florida Statewide Council on Human Trafficking on this issue.
According to the Human Trafficking Institute, out of 269 human trafficking victims recruited over the Internet in 2022, 112 were on Facebook, and 51 were on Instagram. That is 61% of known online human trafficking victims recruited from Meta platforms.
Equally disturbing is a report by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's CyberTipline, which found 85% of self-reported suspected child sexual abuse materials were from Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, which in raw numbers is 27 million pieces of online media.
In her press release, AG Moody bashed Zuckerberg for focusing on "launching new products or wasting time preparing for a cage match that will likely never happen," referencing the viral news of Zuckerberg and Twitter CEO Elon Musk supposedly agreeing to a cage match.
Additionally, Moody demanded Zuckerberg "immediately turn his attention to this public safety threat and testify to our council about what Meta is doing to prevent its platforms from being used to assist, facilitate or support human trafficking."
"Before launching new products or wasting time preparing for a cage match that will likely never happen, Zuckerberg should be working to make Meta’s existing platforms safer for users and to prevent vulnerable people from being forced into illicit sex work. The findings of our statewide survey and other reports make it clear that Meta platforms are the preferred social media applications for human traffickers looking to prey on vulnerable people. Zuckerberg needs to immediately turn his attention to this public safety threat and testify to our council about what Meta is doing to prevent its platforms from being used to assist, facilitate or support human trafficking," said Moody.
In April, Moody similarly excoriated the Biden Administration's speedy expediting of child migrant cases at the southern border have effectively enabled child trafficking, with 250,000 children sent to live with fraudulent family members they do not actually know or picked up at empty lots and strip clubs.
