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Apple reportedly threatened to remove the Facebook app from the App Store in 2019 after reports emerged that the social media platform was being used by human traffickers.
Back in 2019, the BBC reported that human traffickers in the Middle East used Facebook to organize sales of their victims. After the story was published, Apple threatened to start Facebook from the App Store unless it cracked down on the practice, according to internal Facebook documents obtained by theThe Wall Street Journal.
These internal documents reveal that Facebook was aware of the traffic problem before the BBC report. They suggest that Facebook took only limited steps to shut down the activity before Apple launched its threats.
A Facebook researcher asked if “the problem was known to Facebook prior to the BBC investigation and Apple’s escalation?” The answer began with a simple “yes”.
“Throughout 2018 and the first half of 2019, we conducted the global understanding exercise in order to fully understand how domestic servitude manifests itself on our platform throughout its lifecycle: recruitment, facilitation and exploitation”, continues the response.
According to the full the Wall Street newspaper report, the traffickers apparently posed as employment agencies that were in effect a front for the trade and sale of enslaved people. The traffickers allegedly used Facebook to falsely advertise these bogus employment agencies.
Apple publishes an annual report and statement detailing its efforts to combat human trafficking and slavery in its supply chain and other areas of its business. According to the document, App Store applications must not “solicit, promote or encourage criminal or manifestly reckless behavior”.
In extreme cases, for example if applications facilitate human trafficking or the exploitation of children, Apple will notify the appropriate authorities.
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