For a lot of on-line corporations, addressing the specter of wildlife trafficking may be daunting. The legal guidelines that outline this unlawful commerce are complicated for these outdoors of the legislation enforcement and conservation fields. And for on-line corporations, wildlife is only one of dozens of prohibited actions to contemplate in regulating content material on the platform.
In 2008, eBay took the problem head on and banned the worldwide sale of elephant ivory on the platform. Since that point, the corporate has utilized a number of measures to strengthen our enforcement and increase prohibited wildlife insurance policies to incorporate a broader checklist of endangered species.
Since 2017, eBay has blocked or eliminated 522,000 listings that violated its prohibited wildlife insurance policies, with 257,000 of these actioned in 2020. Whereas that is only a small fraction of the content material on eBay’s platform, with greater than 1.7 billion listings stay at one time, it exhibits a dedication by the corporate to allocate vital assets to assist shield wildlife by way of the affect of our market.
eBay is a founding member of the Coalition to Finish Wildlife Trafficking On-line, a worldwide partnership of 40 corporations convened by conservation organizations WWF, TRAFFIC and IFAW aiming to unite the tech sector to scale back unlawful wildlife commerce by way of web-based platforms. By way of this collaboration, eBay has:
- Labored with convening organizations WWF, TRAFFIC and IFAW to coach our enforcement workers to raised detect unlawful wildlife merchandise like elephant ivory and pangolin leather-based boots;
- Revealed communication items to assist eBay patrons and sellers perceive the hyperlink between prohibited merchandise and unlawful wildlife commerce, in addition to the social and environmental impacts of harming nature;
- Utilized the important thing search phrases recognized by the Coalition and academia to increase block filters and improve automated detection of prohibited objects;
- Participated within the Coalition’s Cyber Spotter program, which trains volunteers to identify and flag suspicious wildlife listings on the platform; and
- Shared studying with different on-line corporations and trade media, to assist increase consciousness and greatest practices throughout the trade.
eBay’s success in addressing unlawful wildlife commerce on the platform is a direct results of the corporate’s senior-level dedication and dedication to the problem, backed up by the elevated experience and consciousness of our workers skilled by the Coalition. Extra about our firm commitments to environmental and social governance may be present in our 2020 Impression Report, printed on our web site.