Trafficking of endangered species is BOOMING online. Researchers just revealed that in the last two years there’s been more than a quarter million pangolins, sea turtles, clouded leopards and other wild animals listed for sale, and Facebook hosted 75% of it.
Facebook’s policy prohibits wildlife trafficking on its platform. But instead of enforcing the policy, the company's algorithms actively push users toward more of it.
Picture a pangolin – one of the world's most trafficked mammals – snatched from a forest, stuffed into a container, and listed for sale on Facebook before it dies in transit. Or a clouded leopard cub, torn from its mother, sold to someone who saw it advertised in a Facebook group.
Every click, every scroll, every sale – Facebook is profiting from ignoring it.
But the investors of Meta, Facebook’s parent company, have the power to force change – and right now they're sitting on a liability they haven't priced in. Every lawsuit, every investigation, every story like this one makes it riskier to profit quietly. Together, we can push investors to demand Facebook stop profiting from wildlife trafficking.
Tell Facebook: protect endangered animals, shut down wildlife trafficking.
84% of the animals listed for sale on Facebook are animals so rare and so threatened that international law exists specifically to protect them. More than half are endangered or critically endangered.
Some might argue Meta can't police every corner of its platform, but this isn't a moderation failure. The research leaves no doubt: Facebook's own algorithms actively push users toward more wildlife trafficking content, keeping its profits flowing.
This is Facebook's business model.
We’ll put it plainly: Facebook is actively choosing to allow the biggest criminal wildlife marketplace ever documented to operate on its platform, and is taking a cut of the profits through the engagement it generates.
If we can turn this into a massive outcry to demand Facebook stop profiting from wildlife trafficking -- we can make its investors unable to look the other way. We need to make it clear that ignoring this will cost far more than doing the right thing.
Tell Facebook: stop profiting from wildlife trafficking now.
More information
Mongabay. 5 May 2026.
Mongabay. 30 March 2026.
South China Morning Post. 3 May 2026.
The Guardian. 13 April 2022.