Follows, Likes, & Shares: Social Media’s Dichotomous Agency in Human Trafficking

• In Event: Dynamic Demographics and Ecosystems

Abstract

Human Trafficking is a global problem. With the surge in social media users, criminal networks benefit from the anonymity and ease of communication these platforms offer. Understanding the rising concern over the exploitative use of online platforms, I pose the following questions, “How do human traffickers exploit social media, and what attributes of a country contribute to a higher prevalence of social media-based trafficking?”. To answer these questions, I critically evaluate globalization’s role in the rise of social media in human trafficking by creating a novel dataset and conducting interviews with platform representatives and government officials.
The original dataset addresses the need for a quantifiable measure of social media within human trafficking and draws attention to the relevancy of social media within criminal networks. A total of 1584 cases of trafficking in person underwent content analysis by human coding, text mining, and natural language processing, resulting in a measurement of social media presence within cases. These cases cover 115 countries and a twenty-five-year timespan, highlighting the global nature of the issue.
Combining insights from interviews with human trafficking research experts with statistical analyses of the dataset, I identify what aspects of a country result in a noticeable presence of social media in their human trafficking cases, utilizing a theoretical framework based on social-cultural and technological globalization. From these findings, I share legislation recommendations at both the domestic and international levels to improve practices and combat modern human trafficking.

Author

• Spencer Brooke Hayes, University of Connecticut