Facebook groups are being used to sell endangered wildlife as pets - CNET

Frequent users of Facebook will be accustomed to seeing pictures of animals pop up from time to time in their Home feeds. But some Facebook users in Malaysia are not just posting pictures of animals out of admiration -- they're using the social network to illegally sell them.

Live sun bears, gibbons and otters are among the animals being traded through closed Facebook groups, according to a report published on Thursday by Traffic, an eco-minded nongovemental organization that monitors the trade in wildlife.

The majority of social-media users stick to a site's rules, but Facebook and other social networks still find themselves in never-ending games of Whac-A-Mole with the handful of people who use them for their own nefarious and often illegal purposes. Facebook's troubles with extremists are well documented, but Traffic's report shows that other types of criminal activity are also taking place on the site.

"We are committed to working with Traffic to help tackle the illegal online trade of wildlife in Malaysia," a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement. "Facebook does not allow the sale and trade of endangered animals and we will not hesitate to remove any content that violates our terms of service."

Despite round-the-clock monitoring for illegal activity, things still slip through Facebook's net. Traffic researchers spent just half an hour monitoring 14 Facebook groups over the five months and found more than 300 animals, all thought to be wild, for sale. The groups were mostly closed and boasted a joint total of 68,000 members. The 106 identified sellers had made little attempt to hide their activities, the report said.