Facebook scraps policy that allowed users to seek human smuggling services

Social media company Facebook this week said it was scrapping a controversial policy that allowed users to seek out and request human smuggling services.

The company said in a policy memo that it was “remov[ing] content that facilitates or coordinates the exploitation of humans, including human trafficking,” a decision that comes nearly a year after the company’s permittance of such services first came to light. 

The Washington Free Beacon first reported on Facebook’s allowance of human smuggling services in February of this year. The company at the time said it was permitting such requests in order to help individuals "to seek safety or exercise their human rights." 

The platform at the time said it would also permit "sharing information related to illegal border crossing."

Facebook in its revised policy said it would still permit “content asking for or sharing information about personal safety and border crossing, seeking asylum or how to leave a country.”