Since the internet was created in 1983 over five billion people have had access to the internet. [1] While the Internet was created to bring knowledge to our fingertips, facilitate business and eliminate the distance between friends and family, unfortunately, the Internet has also become a platform for criminal activity, including human trafficking.
What is Human Trafficking?
Human trafficking is defined as a criminal activity that involves the recruitment and exploitation of individuals for profit using deception or force.[2] The human trafficking industry is the second most profitable organized crime in the world, with 5.4 victims of this modern slavery for every 1,000 people in the world.[3]
There are two major types of human trafficking: forced labor and sex trafficking. Forced labor trafficking occurs when an individual is exploited for the purpose of providing labor or services. The types of services include work in agriculture fields, retail stores, hotels, and private homes. On the other hand, sex trafficking is the coercion and exploitation of children or adults for commerce sex acts. Sex trafficking often takes place in brothels, massage parlors, private homes, as well as on the internet.[4]
Who Do Traffickers Target?
While human trafficking spans across all demographics, backgrounds, and races, traffickers frequently prey on individuals in vulnerable populations.[5] These populations include but are not limited to:[6]
- Runaway and homeless youths
- Teenagers who seem depressed or emotionally isolated
- Individuals who struggle with substance abuse
- Undocumented immigrants/migrant workers
- Students who drop out of school
- LGBTQ youth
Victims experience different vulnerabilities depending on their age and gender (7). For underage females, the top vulnerabilities are having run away from home and being in the foster care system, while the top vulnerabilities for adult females are financial debt, substance use, poverty, and immigration status.[7]
Why has the Internet Become a Common place for Human Trafficking?
Over the last two decades, the internet has become a facilitator of human trafficking activity across the United States and globally.[8] This is likely a result of how the internet provides its users with a sense of anonymity, allowing criminals to expand their operations and engage in illicit activity more discreetly. Other reasons why the internet has become popular for trafficking activity include the large potential victim pool, the fast pace of communication between users, and the ability of traffickers to overcome geographical distances. [9]
Today, the internet remains the most common location for sex trafficking recruitment. An estimated 83% of active 2020 sex trafficking cases involved solicitation through the Internet (6).
Impact of Social Media on Sex Trafficking
Social media enables traffickers to identify and isolate vulnerable individuals behind their screens. The Federal Human Trafficking Institute captures the frequency and severity of this issue in its annual report. Of the new cases filed in 2021, 50% of the victims were recruited online, usually through social media platforms, messaging applications, web-based chat rooms, or job boards (6). 65% of underage victims in 2020 active criminal sex trafficking cases were recruited through Facebook, 14% were recruited through Instagram, and 8% were recruited through Snapchat. (6)
Traffickers use applications like Facebook and Instagram to gain insight into someone’s life. With the click of a button, traffickers can “friend” their potential victims on Facebook and survey their profiles for personal information. Traffickers can then access users’ vulnerabilities and tailor their manipulation techniques.[10]
Posts that suggest disappointment, low self-esteem, desire for freedom, and problems at home draw the trafficker’s attention.[11] For instance, one of the victims in the Texas case against Facebook posted about a minor fight she had with her mother. Within hours of her Facebook post, the trafficker messaged her, consoled her, and offered to pick her up in his car.[12]
Online Sex Trafficking Tactics
The two most prevalent methods of online recruitment used by traffickers are hunting and fishing strategies.[13]
- Hunting: Traffickers will access public personal information on social media and target victims purposefully, based on special characteristics such as economic and emotional vulnerabilities.
- Fishing: Traffickers will post advertisements on social media and wait for a potential victim to respond.
The most common ruses for recruitment on Facebook include pursuing a fake romantic interest, false promises of financial assistance, and posts that include deceptive job opportunities (7). Traffickers will frequently begin the recruitment process by directly contacting potential victims with messages of extreme flattery or assurance in hopes of quickly building their trust. According to the 2018 Thorn study, about 42% of the trafficking victims said that the trafficker earned their trust within one month.[14] This shows how quickly the grooming process can occur through applications like Facebook.
Traffickers use social media platforms as a tool of deception. For example, two California high school students in 2019 were messaged on Facebook by who they thought was a woman offering work. The Facebook profile was in fact created by a man who set up multiple fake online identities to recruit young women for commercial sex acts.[15]
Virtual Indicators of Online Human Trafficking
Situations that raise red flags that someone may be recruited online include:[16]
- Job advertisements where a potential employer refuses to share terms, location, signed contracts, or other information about the employment
- Job postings where wages and conditions seem too good to be true
- Someone you know is developing a fast-paced relationship solely through social media
- Someone you know is newly showered with gifts or money from an online relationship
- Direct messages from an unknown user encouraging you to meet them face-to-face
- An online user displays dangerous characteristics such as using threats, attempts to control, extreme jealousy, and verbal abuse
- Someone you know is isolated and is being secretive about their online activity
Solicitation of Buyers on Social Media
The trend toward trafficker’s communication with commercial sex buyers on social media is steadily increasing (6). Traffickers use online applications for the online advertisement of commercial sex, with anonymous users uploading photos of their victims to easily reach a larger pool of buyers. To mask the illicit nature of their post and avoid detection, traffickers will use coded keywords to describe the victim (8). In Polaris’ survivor survey, an estimated 26% of victims stated their trafficker exploited them by using their own personal social media accounts (4).
Current Sex Trafficking Cases
Active Texas Cases Against Facebook
Currently, there are multiple cases against Facebook in the Texas Supreme Court regarding Facebook’s role in sex trafficking cases. The first lawsuit was filed in 2019 against Facebook on behalf of a 15-year-old girl who was recruited into sex trade by a predatory Facebook user. The Facebook user showered her with false opportunities that included helping her make a living as a model. The second case involves a 14-year-old who was targeted via Instagram with promises of a better life. The third plaintiff was 14 years old when she was convinced to run away from home by a man she met on Instagram and sold on Backpage, a classified advertising website.[17]
The plaintiffs in all three cases assert claims of gross negligence. Plaintiffs’ common law claims allege that the unrestricted nature of Facebook abets in the sexual exploitation of children by failing to protect them from malicious users, as stated in a seminar given by one of our attorneys, Meredith Drukker Stratigopoulos. Specifically, Plaintiffs argue Facebook breached their duty to protect by not verifying age and identity, requiring minors to link a parent’s email to their accounts, implementing awareness campaigns, or flagging suspicious messages between minors and adults.[18]
Check out Meredith’s presentation on The Role of Social Media in The Sex Trafficking Industry here!
In response to the lawsuits, Facebook filed a petition before the Supreme Court of Texas directing the dismissal of all claims against them.[19] Facebook argued that it is not liable for the behavior of its users under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (30)[20] Section 230 (c)1 of the CDA states that a user of an “interactive computer service” should not be treated as the publisher of information from another provider, meaning internet platforms cannot be held accountable for words or actions of their users.[21] However, after cases against advertising website Backpage were dismissed in 2016, Congress passed the Allows States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) in 2018. FOSTA creates civil liability for third-party content on websites relating to sexual exploitation.[22]
In June 2021, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that federal law does not grant Facebook immunity against lawsuits for users who lure victims into sex trafficking.[23] While the Texas Supreme Court decided Section 230 immunity applies to Plaintiffs’ common law claims, they ruled that FOSTA applies to Plaintiffs’ statutory claims. This allows the human-trafficking claims against Facebook to proceed in court.
Texas Salesforce Cases
The Facebook cases have been transferred into Texas MDL 19-0991, which contains multiple cases against Salesforce and Backpage-affiliated Defendants concerning allegations related to sex trafficking activity on their sites. At least fifty women have filed lawsuits in Texas against Salesforce, alleging the company profited by helping Backpage expand online sex trafficking on its platform.[24] The plaintiffs argue Salesforce’s custom data tools were used to build trafficker databases, advertise space to traffickers, and conceal the illicit nature of the advertisements on Backpage. Salesforce sought to dismiss the claims, arguing they are not liable under Chapter 98 of the Texas Civil Remedies Code because they were not involved in the posting of sex trafficking advertisements. In December 2022, the Texas Supreme Court denied Salesforce’s motion to dismiss and ruled the case could proceed in district court in Harris County.[25]
Recent Case Updates and Possible Facebook Changes
In April 2022, the Fourteenth Court of Appeals of Texas denied Facebook’s challenge of jurisdiction.[26] Facebook’s current human exploitation policy states they will remove posts that recruit people for forms of human trafficking.[27] Additionally, Facebook has made its safety policy accessible to all to raise awareness of human exploitation globally. Other possible changes in Facebook’s future include making underage accounts private, restricting the ability to use the data of under-16-year-olds by third parties, and limiting algorithm use for under-16-year-old accounts.
Social media has dramatically shaped how we create networks around the world. Unfortunately, it has also created new avenues for sexual violence. The problem of child sex trafficking continues to prevail online. Steps you can take to ensure traffickers are less able to misuse the benefits of social media platforms are placing accounts on private, beware of unknown friend requests, not sharing personal information, and reporting suspicious posts.[28] Vigilance, mindfulness, and skepticism are necessary when interacting with strangers on the internet.
Written by:
Mia Tolin
Law Clerk
WATTS GUERRA LLP
Four Dominion Drive, Bldg. Three, Suite 100
San Antonio, Texas 78257
Phone: (210) 447-0500
Meredith Drukker Stratigopoulos
Partner
WATTS GUERRA LLP
Four Dominion Drive, Bldg. Three, Suite 100
San Antonio, Texas 78257
Phone: (210) 447-0500
Frank Guerra
Board Certified – Personal Injury Law
Texas Board of Legal Specialization
WATTS GUERRA LLP
Four Dominion Drive, Bldg. Three, Suite 100
San Antonio, Texas 78257
Phone: (210) 447-0500
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