A report released by multiple NGOs on Monday accused Meta of hosting the world’s “largest single known marketplace for the illegal wildlife trade” on its Facebook platform, with conservationists saying the company effectively encouraged the trade by allowing users to monetize content.The report is based on research conducted by the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC), which found that more than 20,000 ads for more than 260,000 wildlife products appeared on social media platforms between April 2024 and March 2026. Nearly three-quarters of ads appeared on Facebook, a platform that researchers describe as “a central public infrastructure that centralizes, detects, and amplifies online wildlife trafficking.”According to a report by the United Nations Environment Program, the illegal wildlife trade generates up to $23 billion in revenue every year, and about 1 million animal and plant species are threatened with extinction. Facebook’s policy on restricting goods and services bans trade in endangered species, but experts say enforcement is “sporadic and inadequate.”
Environmentalists say Meta’s monetization policy spurs human trafficking
Meta declined to respond to AFP’s questions, pointing to its policy of restricting the sale of endangered species on its platform. Conservationists argue, however, that these policies have not stopped trade from booming.“Even the unedited accounts and groups we reported publicly in our report are still active and active,” said data scientist and ecologist Russell Gray, co-author of the GI-TOC report. Gray noted that moderation appeared to be primarily in English, while most wildlife trade posts were in other languages.Environmentalists say Meta not only fails to remove offending content, but may effectively encourage it by allowing popular accounts to monetize it through ad revenue and subscription models. “The more interaction and engagement they get on their account, the more money they can make,” said independent wildlife trafficking investigator Daniel Stiles, co-author of the NGO report released on Monday.Researchers found that about 84% of animals sold on Facebook are banned from commercial cross-border trade under CITES, and more than half of them are endangered or critically endangered species. The total value of detected product advertising exceeds $66 million.
Despite policy restrictions, animals and their parts are still openly sold on the platform
The trade covers live animals and wildlife products, including scaled pangolins, rhino horns used in traditional medicines, chimpanzees used as pets and protected birds. While some of the content is cryptic, much of it is explicit — including public Facebook accounts offering dead pangolins and monitor lizards for consumption in Thailand.Meta is among 11 tech companies, including Google, TikTok and Alibaba, which announced in early June that they would work to eliminate wildlife trafficking from their websites during London Climate Action Week. The alliance also includes crypto analytics firms such as TRM Labs and Chainaanalysis to disrupt trading-related financial flows.However, Meta has been a member of the Coalition to End Online Wildlife Trafficking since 2018, and the problem continues to grow. Freeland founder Steve Galster warned that the latest announcement may be just “lip service”.“Unless Meta is forced to remove illegal wildlife trade from its platform and prove that it is not profiting from it, the online wildlife trade will only get worse,” Galster said.
