Mark Zuckerberg and senior leaders of tech giant Meta have had a lawsuit filed against them claiming they ignored trafficking and child exploitation on Facebook and Instagram platforms.
Trafficking unchecked
Current and past members of Meta’s board and management are facing shareholder litigation. A group of pension and investment funds claim the organization knowingly ignored sexual exploitation on their platforms and that they did nothing about the “predatory criminal activities” on its social platforms.
“For the past decade, Meta’s platforms have assisted, supported, and facilitated perpetrators of widespread systemic sex trafficking, human trafficking, and child sexual exploitation that has occurred on a massive scale on Meta’s platforms,” the complaint says. “Although the board and management have known about this increasing trend, both management and the board have consciously turned a blind eye.”
A Mets spokesperson that the terms and conditions of the platform prohibit any such acts of sexual exploitation “…in no uncertain terms”. These latest complaints are part of a growing negative sentiment toward Meta as a corporation “over its data practices, alleged antitrust violations, and mental health impact on users, particularly children and teens.”
Turning a blind eye
Human rights groups report that Facebook, Instagram and other Meta platform companies are used as a shadow market for trafficking activity. While the platform terms of use prohibit it from public display, no action is taken against messages exchanged between users.
Internal company records show that after Apple Inc. threatened to pull Facebook and Instagram from its App Store over the trafficking reports, company leaders privately conceded they’d been “underreporting this behavior,” the suit says.
Zuckerberg has even personally testified against the claims which leads many to believe that company leaders are knowingly allowing this type of conduct on the platform.
Legal backlash
The latest set of legal scrutiny comes from Employees’ Retirement System of the State of Rhode Island, the Cleveland Bakers and Teamsters Pension Fund, and affiliates of Fisher Funds Management Ltd.
Rhode Island pension fund has levied accusations before, namely in the Cambridge Analytica incident during the 2016 US Elections.
Rhode Island Treasurer James A. Diossa said:
“Meta’s executives and board members can no longer consciously fail to address the rampant sex trafficking, human trafficking, and child sexual exploitation.”
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Why are we surprised, this has been going on for some time and yet the authorities still look the other way and leaders in this industry, like Zuckerberg, deny any knowledge of wrong doing in their businesses when questioned. The inhumane system of profit driven businesses only makes us look a very pathetic and sick species in this world!