Illegal wildlife trade on Facebook: How endangered species are sold online

A recent report by a coalition of NGOs, including Freeland, Education for Nature Vietnam, and International Wildlife Trust, accuses Facebook’s parent company, Meta, of hosting the world's largest single known illegal wildlife trade market. These findings align with research from the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime (GI-TOC), which identified Facebook as the primary public infrastructure accelerating, concentrating, and scaling online wildlife trafficking.

Between April 2024 and March 2026, GI-TOC discovered over 20,000 advertisements offering more than 260,000 wildlife products on social media. Nearly three-quarters of these adverts were hosted on Facebook. Despite being reported, many of these unredacted accounts and groups remain fully live and active.

Traffickers openly utilise Meta's platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, to market a wide variety of illicit items. These listings range from live chimpanzees intended as pets to rhino horns used in traditional medicine and dead pangolins sold for consumption. For example, a Thai Facebook account advertising "seasonal wild delicacies" posted an image of a dead, de-scaled pangolin on a weighing scale. Pangolins are recognised as one of the world's most endangered and heavily trafficked mammals.

Policy Failures and Financial Incentives

While Meta declined to answer specific questions from the news agency AFP, the company pointed to its existing policies that restrict the sale of endangered species. However, conservationists argue that these policies merely pay lip service to the issue and have done little to stop the trade. Tom Taylor, chief operating officer of Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand, noted that he has never received a response or seen action taken after reporting illegal listings. Experts assert that accounts openly breaking the law should be investigated and closed.

“Accounts that are openly breaking the law should be closed, and investigations into the criminal activities behind them should be launched,” Taylor told news agency AFP.

Furthermore, conservationists argue that Meta effectively encourages illegal trafficking by sharing advertising revenues and allowing subscription models. Daniel Stiles, an independent wildlife trafficking investigator, explained that Meta's content monetisation models incentivise illegal acts; higher interaction and engagement translate directly into more money for the users. "The more interaction and engagement they get on their account, the more money they can make," added Stiles, who co-authored the report released Monday by NGOs including Freeland, Education for Nature Vietnam and International Wildlife Trust.

Although Meta does not publicly disclose which accounts participate in its monetisation programmes, accounts enrolled in its subscription programme are publicly visible. This includes an active account seemingly based in Laos that showcases the poaching of wildlife, including pangolins.

While the issue is highly concentrated on Meta's infrastructure, other platforms like TikTok and Snapchat are also increasingly utilised by traffickers. Snapchat is particularly favoured due to its disappearing post settings.