Correction: Gretchen Peters helped coordinate earlier petitions to the SEC about Facebook’s failure to police wildlife trafficking and stolen antiquities. An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Peters helped coordinate a complaint to the SEC — also filed by the National Whistleblower Center — about terrorist networks on Facebook. Peters was not involved in that complaint.
In a sworn statement attached to the complaint, a former Facebook content moderator said the social network’s moderation policies were ad hoc and often changed in response to media events. “Compared to hate speech, they did not seem to worry about drugs at all,” the statement said.
The filing is part of a campaign by the National Whistleblower Center to hold Facebook accountable for unchecked criminal activity on its properties. By petitioning the SEC, the consortium is attempting to get around a bedrock law — Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act — that exempts Internet companies from liability for the user-generated content on their platform.
Facebook said it couldn’t comment on the claim without more context but that the company has a dedicated team that ensures compliance with rules around knowing your customer.
Under the Dodd-Frank Act, whistleblowers can be outside observers of a company, as well as company insiders.
Instagram has a drug problem. Its algorithms make it worse.
First, the filing argues that because Facebook runs a money service business, Facebook Pay, the company has to follow federal banking and national security laws about knowing its customers or else face sanctions and fines. However, Facebook did not adequately provide systems that would enable content moderators to communicate about illicit activities, including agreements to transfer payment, on Facebook products, according to the claim. PayPal has previously been fined under those statutes.
Just half an hour’s daily monitoring over five months by TRAFFIC researchers of 14 Facebook Groups in Peninsular Malaysia found more than 300 apparently wild, live animals for sale as pets, ranging from Sun Bears Helarctos malayanus and gibbons, to otters and even Binturong Arctictis binturong .
The Trading Faces: A Rapid Assessment on the use of Facebook to Trade Wildlife in Peninsular Malaysia report was produced with the support of WWF-Netherlands.
environmental laws but also the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES)—a global agreement that seeks to ensure that trade in wildlife and plants doesn’t threaten their survival.
Illicit online trade in exotic species is a significant threat to wild birds such as the African grey parrot (left) and blue-and-yellow macaw (right). The birds are sold to brokers, who in turn offer them for hundreds, even thousands, of dollars on the international black market.
If convicted, Casacci could face as much as $1.3 million in fines and up to life in prison, according to federal attorneys prosecuting the case.
They say that he embarked on his exotic cat business as an effort to rescue African kittens and place them in sanctuaries.
Facebook’s dominance over the internet constantly grows as the company’s algorithms make recommendations to connect users with people and groups who reflect similar interests.
Facebook is pushing back on the allegations, saying the government “cleared the acquisitions years ago” and now “wants a do-over,” according to reporting by CNN Business.) Facebook says it’s cracking down on wildlife trafficking by working with conservation groups to remove endangered animal postings.
Casacci, who was running the website ExoticCubs.com, is now facing 33 charges related to trafficking protected African cats for the exotic pet trade, including disguising illicit activity by falsely declaring some of the animals as domesticated breeds, and violating a federal animal welfare law.