By Aamy Kuldip (view PDF version)

I. Introduction

Human trafficking is a horrific crime that involves stealing one’s freedom for profit.[1]Victims of human trafficking may be tricked or forced into providing commercial sex or illegal labor, and are often left extremely traumatized.[2] Online communication platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Craigslist, enable human trafficking efforts by providing easy access to personal information that can be used by traffickers to profile and recruit potential victims.[3]The internet further facilitates human trafficking on a global scale increasing the scope of advertising, recruitment, coordination, or control.[4]The potential global scope of internet-facilitated human trafficking greatly complicates criminal and civil investigations and makes the coordination of law enforcement efforts extremely challenging due to evidentiary issues.[5] In its annual Federal Human Trafficking Report, the Human Trafficking Institute found that eighty-three percent of active 2020 trafficking cases involved online solicitation.[6] Specifically, fifty-nine percent of victims in active sex trafficking cases and sixty-five percent of underage victims recruited online in 2020 active sex trafficking cases occurred on Facebook.[7] As an example, a seventeen-year-old girl ran away from her home in North Carolina to be with a thirty-two-year-old man whom she met on Facebook.[8]After chatting over Facebook Messenger, he convinced the victim to meet him in person.[9] Afterwards, he took the victim to a hotel, where she was trafficked and transported to Florida along with three other victims.[10]