Action for Primates and Lady Freethinker have welcomed the removal of over 30 groups/profiles on Facebook that were responsible for continually posting sadistic and graphic content depicting the torture and killing of baby monkeys.
The removal follows the sending of a new report by the groups – Monkey Abuse on Social Media – to Meta, along with a dossier of information about the groups/profiles that were regularly in violation of Meta’s policy by posting content depicting deliberate and obvious physical torture of monkeys. An appeal was made to Meta to take immediate action to stop enabling these monkey torture groups to operate on its platform by removing and banning these accounts and by introducing stronger measures to identify such content and to stop it from being posted in the first place.
The report, published by Lady Freethinker and Action for Primates, reveals that monkey abuse content is increasing in prevalence across the world’s top social media platforms — Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, and X (formerly known as Twitter). Between May-October 2023, we logged 857 videos and images overall, with the majority of videos — and those showing some of the worst cruelty — being posted on Facebook. Examples included infant monkeys having their eyes drilled out, parts of their body cut or ripped off, and their bones broken or set alight.
The pain, suffering, and distress these vulnerable infant monkeys are subjected to for “entertainment” on social media platforms is harrowing and heartbreaking.
Although we are grateful for the action taken by Meta in response to our appeal, Lady Freethinker and Action for Primates remain disappointed that these groups/profiles were active on Facebook and had not already been taken down by Meta because of the sadistic and graphic nature of the content posted. We urge Meta to police its own guidelines rigorously and proactively, as well as to respond promptly and effectively to complaints to help remove the incentive for people to commit and film these despicable acts of cruelty. We also anticipate that the recent passing of the Online Safety Act in the UK will make social media platforms legally obliged to implement and enforce strict guidelines prohibiting animal cruelty content.
Please sign the petition to Facebook — Remove Animal Cruelty From Facebook —asking them to:
- Immediately put into place a more robust monitoring system to identify animal cruelty videos;
- Create an easy and effective flagging system for the public to raise concerns over animal cruelty videos;
- Set and adopt standardized definitions, across all social media platforms, on what constitutes animal cruelty videos;
- Stop paying channel or video owners for film content that depicts animal cruelty, unless used for legitimate campaign purposes to end such cruelty;
- Ensure that these policies allow for animal welfare organizations and environmental organizations to show animal cruelty videos to highlight the problems; and
- Remove all videos containing animal abuse.
We urge everyone to not watch, comment, share, or otherwise interact with monkey torture videos, as doing so helps boost the posts’ visibility and views for these despicable groups. Instead, always report videos depicting animal cruelty to platforms’ reporting systems.
Action for Primates and Lady Freethinker are members of the Social Media Animal Cruelty Coalition (SMACC), an initiative from the Asia for Animals coalition dedicated to stamping out animal abuse on social platforms worldwide. Visit the link to find out more and to learn how to report animal cruelty content on social media platforms.
