Facebook has come under fire once more, after it was revealed that the social media platform was used to auction a 17-year-old South Sudanese girl for marriage.
According to a report by children’s rights organisation Plan International, the girl was bid on by at least five men, eventually being “sold” for 500 cows, three cars and $10,000, in what the organisation called a “barbaric use of technology”.
Some of the men involved in the auction were “high-ranking South Sudanese government officials”, CNN reports, and the auction was set up by a member of the community with the blessing of the girl’s family.
Facebook confirmed that its platform had been used for the auction, which began on 25 October and ran until it was removed on 9 November, “15 days after the auction began and several days after the girl was married”, according to the Huffington Post.
“Any form of human trafficking – whether posts, pages, ads or groups is not allowed on Facebook. We removed the post and permanently disabled the account belonging to the person who posted this to Facebook,” the company said in a statement.
