Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has decided to allow solicitations for human smuggling on its platforms, according to an exclusive report in the Washington Free Beacon.
Meta’s decision goes directly against the demands of anti-human trafficking groups, who wanted the tech giant to crack down on the human smugglers. Apparently, the reason that Meta won’t ban solicitations is that a lot of illegal aliens use the services provided by the smugglers.
In an internal announcement of Meta’s “human smuggling policy” obtained by the Free Beacon, the company concluded that a crackdown on human smuggling solicitations would hamper the ability for people to use the platform “to seek safety or exercise their human rights.” The company said it will maintain its current policy, which prohibits users from offering human smuggling but allows them to solicit smuggling services.
It’s debatable whether it’s a “human right” to use the services of a human smuggler to evade the laws and lawful authorities and enter a country illegally. Meta doesn’t seem to care very much about the people who might choose the wrong smuggler and end up dead in a desert in the border area or working as a prostitute — abused, hooked on drugs, and murdered.
As recently as May 2021, Meta claimed it was not posting “content that either offers or assists with human smuggling.” That was a load of crap.
Meta acknowledges in the memo that its decision comes with “tradeoffs.” Allowing the solicitation of smuggling services “can make it easier for bad actors to identify and connect with vulnerable people.” It also added that “law enforcement and government bodies … raised concerns that permitting this type of content on our platforms facilitates illegal activity and puts migrants at serious risk of exploitation or death.”
Those “tradeoffs”? Meta’s profits for the lives of young girls.
Migrants who enlist the assistance of human traffickers to come across the southern border are often subjected to sexual assault or other forms of violence. A May 2017 report from Doctors Without Borders found 31.4 percent of female migrants who traveled through Mexico into the United States had been sexually abused.
Meta’s decision means that the human smugglers — no matter who they’re smuggling — will now be able to conduct their business out in the open instead of in the shadows on the dark web. It will no doubt be a boon for business as many of the same coyotes who smuggle people across the border also smuggle drugs.
Giving criminals a twofer is about what we might expect from a company that censors political speech it doesn’t agree with but allows human traffickers to conduct the business of selling little girls into sexual slavery.
