Facebook’s Black Market in Antiquities

Trafficking, Terrorism and War Crimes

 

This investigation followed 95 Arabic-language Facebook Groups with a global reach of 1,947,195 members. These Group members included a mix of average citizens, middlemen and violent extremists such as Syrian-based groups like Hay’at Tahrir Al Sham (HTS) and ISIS. Traffickers offered large and small artifacts, including mosaics, coins, manuscripts, tombstones, scrolls architectural elements and Pharaonic coffins - some of which were still in situ. It was also revealed that users based in conflict zones made up 36% of the posts offering artifacts and another 44% came from countries bordering conflict zones.

Facebook’s rapid growth and lack of internal policing mechanisms over the past decade have helped the platform become a digital black market where users buy and sell these looted antiquities. Features including photo and video uploads, live streaming, disappearing ‘Stories,’ payment mechanisms, recommended Pages and Groups and encrypted messaging both enable and amplify antiquities trafficking, which is considered a war crime.

The research found in this report led Facebook to ban the sale of historical relics under its Community Standards.

ATHAR-FB-Report-June-2019-1.jpg