According to the Human Trafficking Institute, “The majority of online recruitment in active sex trafficking cases in the U.S. last year took place on Facebook”. The CEO, Victor Boutros, told CBSN that the traffickers frequently use the internet to recruit on various social networking sites. Specifically, Facebook has been used overwhelmingly by traffickers in many active sex trafficking cases.
According to CBS News, an active cases of human trafficking include defendants charged in 2020 and those whose charges were still pending in trial last year. Over the last two decades, data has indicated that “30% of all victims identified in federal sex trafficking cases since 2000 were recruited online”. Furthermore, Facebook was utilized in 59% of online recruitment cases recorded in the U.S.
Facebook issued a statement following the CBS News report stating, “Sex trafficking and child exploitation are abhorrent and we don't allow them on Facebook. We have policies and technology to prevent these types of abuses and take down any content that violates our rules.".
Original Article: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/facebook-sex-trafficking-online-recruitment-report/
Source: CBS News