According to the claims of a children's charity, the 3000 people that the largest social media platform in the world Facebook has reportedly hired could not prevent a father to use the platform to call for an auction of his teenage daughter for marriage and then marrying her off based on bids he received for her.
Based on the bid call on Facebook, five men in South Sudan placed bids to marry the 17 year old girl, said Plan International. The charity said that the five men also possibly included high-ranking government officials from the country. the organization further alleged that the social media company had simply just deleted the father’s post following the completion of the marriage of the daughter.
According to the organization, the girl was married off to one of the Facebook bidders in a ceremony held on 3 November in the Eastern Lakes State region of South Sudan.
“This barbaric use of technology is reminiscent of latter-day slave markets," George Otim, the charity's South Sudan country director said in a statement. “That a girl could be sold for marriage on the world’s biggest social networking site in this day and age is beyond belief.”
“While it is common for dowries to be used in marriages in South Sudanese culture, nothing can excuse the way this girl, who is still a child, has been treated as nothing more than an object, sold off to the bidder prepared to offer the most money and goods.”
A call to the government of South Sudan, which is also the youngest country in terms of formation, to take action against any official if to have been involved in the acts was given by the charitable organization.
According to data from the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (Unicef), narrating off legally underage girls is on the rise in South Sudan as over half of women who are not aged between 20 and 24 in the country had been married off before they had turned 18 – the legal age for marriage. The data further suggested that nine per cent of the girls were married off by their parents and otherwise before the attained the age of 15 years.
Following the father putting up his daughter for auction on the social media platform, 500 cows, three cars and $10,000 had been received by the father against his daughter from the people who had responded to the auction, said the organization - Plan International.
The social media was made aware of the auction post on November 9 and it promptly deleted it within 24 hours, Facebook has told the media.
“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. We’re always improving the methods we use to identify content that breaks our policies, including doubling our safety and security team to more than 30,000 and investing in technology”m said a Facebook spokeswoman to the media.
(Ssource:www.independent.com)
Based on the bid call on Facebook, five men in South Sudan placed bids to marry the 17 year old girl, said Plan International. The charity said that the five men also possibly included high-ranking government officials from the country. the organization further alleged that the social media company had simply just deleted the father’s post following the completion of the marriage of the daughter.
According to the organization, the girl was married off to one of the Facebook bidders in a ceremony held on 3 November in the Eastern Lakes State region of South Sudan.
“This barbaric use of technology is reminiscent of latter-day slave markets," George Otim, the charity's South Sudan country director said in a statement. “That a girl could be sold for marriage on the world’s biggest social networking site in this day and age is beyond belief.”
“While it is common for dowries to be used in marriages in South Sudanese culture, nothing can excuse the way this girl, who is still a child, has been treated as nothing more than an object, sold off to the bidder prepared to offer the most money and goods.”
A call to the government of South Sudan, which is also the youngest country in terms of formation, to take action against any official if to have been involved in the acts was given by the charitable organization.
According to data from the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (Unicef), narrating off legally underage girls is on the rise in South Sudan as over half of women who are not aged between 20 and 24 in the country had been married off before they had turned 18 – the legal age for marriage. The data further suggested that nine per cent of the girls were married off by their parents and otherwise before the attained the age of 15 years.
Following the father putting up his daughter for auction on the social media platform, 500 cows, three cars and $10,000 had been received by the father against his daughter from the people who had responded to the auction, said the organization - Plan International.
The social media was made aware of the auction post on November 9 and it promptly deleted it within 24 hours, Facebook has told the media.
“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. We’re always improving the methods we use to identify content that breaks our policies, including doubling our safety and security team to more than 30,000 and investing in technology”m said a Facebook spokeswoman to the media.
(Ssource:www.independent.com)
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