Facebook used to auction off child bride in South Sudan

[midian182]

Why it matters: Facebook is facing renewed criticism for not doing enough to monitor the platform, especially in developing countries. It’s been reported that a 17-year-old South Sudanese girl was recently auctioned on the social network for marriage, and it took the company 15 days to remove the post—one week after she was married.

Reuters reports that a picture of the girl was posted to Facebook on October 25. Five men, including a government official, took part in the auction for a dowry, which was eventually won by a wealthy businessman who reportedly gave the girl’s father over 500 cows, three luxury cars and $10,000.

The South Sudanese National Alliance for Women Lawyers (NAWL) told CNN that the family wasn’t responsible for the auction; it had been posted by someone from the community.

The girl was married on November 3, but Facebook didn’t remove the post until November 9.

"This barbaric use of technology is reminiscent of latter-day slave markets. That a girl could be sold for marriage on the world’s biggest social networking site in this day and age is beyond belief," said George Otim, country director of Plan International South Sudan, in a statement.

"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."

Facebook said it removed the post and banned the user for violating its community standards, but as the auction had already been completed and fetched such a high price, there are concerns it could lead to similar posts.

"Any form of human trafficking whether posts, pages, ads or groups that co-ordinate this activity are not allowed on Facebook. As soon as we were made aware of this post we worked quickly to remove the content and associated profile," a Facebook spokesperson said, in a statement.

According to Taban Abel, information minister in the Eastern Lakes area of the country, the girl has now gone into hiding in the capital, Juba.

Facebook is working to increase its number of content moderators to 30,000, but it seems the company can still miss posts like these, especially when they come from far-flung locations.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/77525-facebook-used-auction-off-child-bride-south-sudan.html

 

[Forebode]

---"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."

An argument could be that a dowry has always treated the future bride as nothing more than an object sold off to the highest bidder. The only shocking part should be if the 17 = a child.. I'm reading the article and I don't see any information on the laws to support that they have the same age laws there that they have in the US. I'm assuming they have different cultures there as well... not saying it's right to do any of this, but the author didn't give us any information.

The lack of such information makes it look like it was on purposed.... to hide information.

Would the title be as shocking if you said a 17 yr child..

 

[senketsu]

---"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."

An argument could be that a dowry has always treated the future bride as nothing more than an object sold off to the highest bidder...………..<snip>...

I completely agree with your argument, and this used to be the norm in many places or in Europe where marriages in the upper classes used to be for political or other similar purposes. The big complaint from George Otim, who knows, he is the country director for Plan International, we don't know if he is Sudanese or is a foreigner working there for P.I.

 

[stewi0001]

---"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."

An argument could be that a dowry has always treated the future bride as nothing more than an object sold off to the highest bidder. The only shocking part should be if the 17 = a child.. I'm reading the article and I don't see any information on the laws to support that they have the same age laws there that they have in the US. I'm assuming they have different cultures there as well... not saying it's right to do any of this, but the author didn't give us any information.

The lack of such information makes it look like it was on purposed.... to hide information.

Would the title be as shocking if you said a 17 yr child..

Yea this is all sorts of missing information with this. This is from another site on the same topic:

“Article 15 of the Republic of South Sudan transitional constitution states that any person of marriageable age has the right to form a family, and Article 17 guarantees women and girls the right to consent to marriage. Article 17 also defines a child as anyone under the age of 18, and further states that the best interests of the child will be protected in all matters related to his or her life, and that they should not be subjected to exploitative practices or abuse. We as Plan International call for the full and effective enforcement of these laws.”

https://plan-international.org/news...ge-facebook-auction-reminiscent-slave-markets

So they get child from the Article 17, which to me I would call her a teenager, but you know legal stuff.

Either way, I wish all social medias luck. There are so many things people expect them to police.

 

[lazer]

Gosh! I wonder if I can sell my wife? could be a great opportunity.....

 

[CybaGirl]

These oxygen thieving facebook cretins can delete a post of mine and put me in fb gaol within minutes of me posting it! Yet these scum bags take fifteen days to remove this post!

My guess is that this post was generating them income for their greedy share holders! Hence why it took so long to be removed!

 

[takemaru]

These oxygen thieving facebook cretins can delete a post of mine and put me in fb gaol within minutes of me posting it! Yet these scum bags take fifteen days to remove this post!

My guess is that this post was generating them income for their greedy share holders! Hence why it took so long to be removed!

More like there are no perpetually outraged SJWs in Sudan, to hurt the price of Facebook stocks.