Facebook has become the dominant online platform for illegal wildlife trade, accounting for nearly 75 percent of the trafficking advertisements detected across 61 websites and apps over almost two years, according to a new report by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime. 

The report, based on data from the ECO-SOLVE Global Monitoring System, said monitors recorded 21,904 illegal wildlife trade advertisements containing 266,535 wildlife products between April 14, 2024 and March 1, 2026. Of those, 16,290 ads, or 74.3 percent, were found on Facebook, far more than any other platform. 

GI-TOC said around 60 percent of the ads included prices and that the total advertised value of listed offers reached $66 million, of which Facebook ads accounted for $65 million. The total shows that the social-media giant isn’t just platforming the illegal wildlife trade, it’s scaling it, GI-TOC concluded. 

GI-TOC said the trade it documented was multilingual and transnational, spanning activity across three continents and 21 languages and dialects. The report said sellers often used private messages, bank transfers, and escrow accounts to complete transactions after initial public contact on the platform. 

The report argued that Meta’s voluntary enforcement efforts had failed to curb the trade despite bans on wildlife sales, warning pop-ups, partnerships, and earlier public commitments to reduce online trafficking. Facebook remains a high-reach, low-friction environment where buyers and sellers can find one another, build trust, and transact with little resistance. 

Read the GI-TOC report here