Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

News

Facebook, WhatsApp Media of Choice for Human Traffickers, UN Raises Alarm

A United Nations migration official called Thursday for Facebook to police its site and its WhatsApp messaging subsidiary for use by abusive human smugglers.

Leonard Doyle, director of media and communication at the UN International Organization for Migration, said that Facebook and WhatsApp have become the media of choice for people smugglers in the Middle East and Africa to advertise their services and make arrangements with migrants.

But many of those groups abuse migrants, taking travellers hostage and beating them to demand ransoms from their families, he said.

As it now blocks violent jihadist groups like Islamic State from promoting itself on Facebook pages, Facebook should police people smugglers doing the same thing, Doyle said in an online discussion hosted by Refugees Deeply, a migration-focused media group.

“They have turbocharged the access to smugglers,” he said.

“Big tech companies have a huge responsibility that they are not living up to.”

Smugglers use all kinds of social media and messaging applications to communicate, but Facebook’s pages, private groups and the Facebook Live video app, as well as WhatsApp, are by far the most popular, according to experts.

Leonard noted that people searching for child pornography on social media can get warnings that what they are doing is illegal.

Facebook and others need to do the same to help stem migration abuses, Doyle said.

Facebook especially needs to help crack down on the extortion taking place, with West Africans the leading targets. Smugglers kidnap migrants, torture them and use social media to send pictures and video to families to demand money.

“We cannot continue to allow people to be tortured, Doyle said.

He said that Facebook has largely ignored his overtures, putting him in contact with low-level officials who do little to help.

“They say its hard, but they don’t really try,” he said.

“The motivation of the big tech companies is to get customers…. There’s a kind of race for market domination in the developing world.”

(AFP)

 

 

_________

Follow us on Twitter at @thesignalng

Copyright 2018 SIGNAL. Permission to use portions of this article is granted provided appropriate credits are given to www.signalng.com and other relevant sources.

Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Advertisement

Related

News

The Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria says it has lodged a suit against Meta Platforms Incorporated (owners of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp platforms) and...

Columns

A giant by human understanding is a super-human being that contrasts with other mortals in many ways. Physically, he towers above all other human...

News

Russia on Friday blocked Facebook, restricted access to Twitter, and moved to impose harsh jail terms for publishing “fake news” about the army as...

News

The Facebook-backed digital currency project Diem announced Monday the winding down and $182-million sale of its technology, capping a years-long initiative that drew significant...

Copyright ©