Report accuses Facebook of hosting largest wildlife black market

A coalition of NGOs on Monday accused Facebook of hosting the world's largest known illegal wildlife trade market, citing over 21,000 ads for 266,000 products.timesofindia.indiatimes+1
Researchers say Facebook's closed groups, monetization tools and recommendation algorithms make it ideal infrastructure for trafficking endangered species.news.mongabay
The report came days after Meta , Google, Amazon and eight other tech firms pledged to eliminate illegal wildlife listings using AI.ifaw

A coalition of conservation organizations has accused Meta of hosting the world's "largest single known illegal wildlife trade market" on Facebook, in a report released on Sunday that alleges the social media giant effectively encourages the trafficking of endangered species by sharing advertising revenues with users.

Scale of the Trade

The report, backed by research from the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC), found more than 21,000 advertisements containing some 266,000 wildlife products posted across online marketplaces between April 2024 and March 2026, with an estimated value of $66 million. Nearly three-quarters of those advertisements appeared on Facebook, which researchers described as "the central public infrastructure through which online wildlife trafficking is being concentrated, discovered and scaled".timesofindia.indiatimes+2

About 84% of animals offered for sale are banned from international commercial trade under CITES, the global wildlife trade treaty, and more than half were endangered or critically endangered species including pangolins, gibbons, sea turtles and clouded leopards.news.mongabay

Platform Design Enables Trafficking

Researchers say Facebook's architecture — its closed groups, anonymous posting, content monetization features and recommendation algorithms — makes it an ideal platform for traffickers. Facebook groups accounted for 76% of detections, and 78% of trade records were encountered without researchers actively searching for them.facebook+1

Some poachers are "double-dipping," earning money through Facebook's creator monetization tools while simultaneously selling rare, protected animals, according to Russell Gray, the report's lead researcher. The NGOs say this amounts to Meta effectively subsidizing wildlife crime.news.mongabay

"Self-regulation has not worked and is unlikely to be fully successful," said Simone Haysom, director of environmental crime programs at GI-TOC. "We need regulation with teeth."news.mongabay

Meta's Response

Meta did not respond to questions from multiple outlets regarding the report's findings. The company has pointed to its policies prohibiting the sale of endangered species and its membership since 2018 in the Coalition to End Wildlife Trafficking Online. The coalition reported removing 63.3 million prohibited wildlife listings between 2018 and 2025, though it did not specify which platforms those came from.yahoo+1

The report arrives just days after 11 tech companies — including Meta, Google, and Amazon Amazon.com, Inc. — pledged to eliminate illegal wildlife listings using artificial intelligence. Researchers say such pledges ring hollow without independent oversight and meaningful enforcement action against traffickers operating on these platforms.ifaw

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