Facebook allowed South Sudan family to auction off 16-year-old girl as child bride: report

[brooklynite]

Source: The Hill

Facebook allowed a family in South Sudan to auction off a 16-year-old girl as a child bride last month, according to multiple reports.

The tech giant, which prohibits human trafficking on its platform, did not delete the post requesting dowry for the girl until she was already married, CNN reported. The post went up on Oct. 25 and was taken down two weeks later.

The girl, whose identity was unknown, was married on Nov. 3 and has now gone into hiding in South Sudan's capital, the information minister of the the country's Eastern Lakes state said in a statement, according to Business Insider.

"Any form of human trafficking - whether posts, pages, ads or groups is not allowed on Facebook," a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement, according to CNN. "We removed the post and permanently disabled the account belonging to the person who posted this to Facebook."

Read more: https://thehill.com/policy/technology/417608-facebook-allowed-south-sudan-family-to-auction-off-16-year-old-girl-as

[mr_lebowski]

1. Hey, you know, their magical sky daddy, holy men, and ancient, sacred texts probably tell them

that a man's female children are his chattel, meant to be auctioned off (30 sheckels of silver, starting bid) to the highest bidder once they become fecund.

And who are we to question, let alone challenge, their sincerely-held religious beliefs?

[FreepFryer]

2. Trafficking and transactional marriage is not the sole province of religions.

Seemingly concerned only with denigrating religion, and avoiding altogether the actual point of the piece (FB and trafficking), your post is remarkably devoid of value.

[mr_lebowski]

3. Yes, well, I think your post is remarkably devoid of value ... so there! (nt)

[FreepFryer]

4. that response pales in comparison to even the weakest religious argument...

...at least they earn their wine and loaves.

[mr_lebowski]

5. If you don't get my point, I'm not going to bother explaining it to you ... good day to you sir ...

[not_the_one]

7. concerned only with denigrating religion

And your point is????

Religion is a cloak of ignorance and prejudice. Use it against YOUR OWN body, if you must use it, but leave everyone else out of it. After all, GOD only exists between your two ears. No. Where. Else.

[FreepFryer]

9. The OP never mentioned religion. This poster made no mention to the article content.

That was my observation and remains so.

[Oneironaut]

13. Well, the Bible is a how-to manual on acquiring and keeping sex slaves.

I would say that, though it’s not the sole province of religions, the Bible shows us that the two are joined at the hip.

[leftynyc]

16. I doubt either the bible

or the new testament was used as a basis for this sale.

[LanternWaste]

8. Or Facebook's desire for net profit.

"And who are we to question, let alone challenge, their sincerely-held religious beliefs?"

Or Facebook's desire for net profit, which seems a wee bit more relevant in this instance.

On the other hand, who are we to stand between the little people and their righteous rage against the imaginary, let alone challenge their sincerely held and irrelevant biases.

[FreepFryer]

10. This. (nt)

[Oneironaut]

11. "Normally this is immoral, but God is ok with it" - Religion in general

God sounds like a total jerk. He seems to love rape, death, and destruction.

[RhodeIslandOne]

18. Uh oh, you gone done it now!

[Cold War Spook]

20. What religion. None stated in piece.

Are you insinuating that they are Jews?

[Codeine]

22. Where on Earth did THAT come from?

There are essentially no Jews left in Sudan. There was a small community but they pretty much all left almost fifty years ago.

South Sudan is a majority-Christian state, so it is entirely possible that the actors in this drama aren’t who most readers would immediately assume, but one can be assured they aren’t Jewish.

[RainCaster]

6. Anyone who thinks Facebook will be our moral high road is sadly mistaken

I'm sure they spent plenty of time evaluating how many clicks/views they could get out of this crap before they ever thought about "hey- this shit is wrong".

[BadGimp]

23. fair point imo

[Blue_Tires]

12. wait.... WHAT?

[Luciferous]

14. But Facebook is just a way to reconnect with high school friends right?

[Democrats_win]

15. LOL, it once was a connector to high school friends.

This story is only one in a long line of its "misuses." Totalitarian candidates are using it all over the world!

In high school my friend always complained that our small town made it hard for him to have privacy. Then as an adult he joined Facebook. Isn't that wild?

Facebook: the new My Space. Let's hope. End the evil.

[maxsolomon]

17. "Facebook DIDN'T NOTICE S. Sudan family..."

They didn't "allow" the violation of their terms of service, they just didn't catch it in time.

[xor]

19. If not one reported it, then it would be difficult for Facebook to know of it.

There is a lot to be critical of Facebook about, but I find very unlikely that they would willingly ignore that if they knew about it.

[BadGimp]

21. This gets the "STUPIDEST HEADLINE" award.

Facebook did not "allow" anyone to do anything. The family did it and as soon as Facebook realized what had been done they had the post removed.

[Tigerlillygirl]

24. The ole Zuck certainly doesn't base his bottomline on morality.

[UpInArms]

25. Yet it was able to detect that I was selling a live animal

A peacock .... And notified me that my post was not allowed ...

Immediately ...

(Scrathes head)

How did that happen?