US sisters, advocates call on Big Tech to do more to end human trafficking

(OSV News) -- An anti-trafficking group founded by U.S. Catholic religious sisters is calling on leaders of Big Tech firms to counter human rights abuses that allow human trafficking to fester.

The Alliance to End Human Trafficking issued an open letter July 30 addressed to Tim Cook, CEO of Apple; entrepreneur Elon Musk, owner of the X (formerly Twitter) platform; Google CEO Sundar Pichai; Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Meta, which among other platforms owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp; and other leaders in the technology sector.

The letter was released on the 10th annual World Day against Trafficking in Persons, established by the United Nations to highlight exploitation estimated to impact some 50 million victims, 27.6 million through forced labor and another 22 million through forced marriage. One in three trafficking victims is a child, with girls particularly at risk.

The U.N. has stressed that online platforms pose "additional risks" regarding trafficking, "as children often connect to these sites without adequate safeguards."

The Alliance to End Human Trafficking -- founded in 2013 and representing more than 115 congregations, as well as over 100 individuals and organizations in the U.S. -- echoed that point in its letter.

"This digital era, led by innovations from your companies, has created unprecedented opportunities for connection, learning and growth," the alliance wrote to the tech leaders. "However, it has also exposed new ways for child labor, forced labor and human trafficking to proliferate."

The alliance added, "As the leaders of the world's most influential companies, you are confronted with a pivotal issue that poses an existential challenge to the progress of innovation and the preservation of human dignity."

According to Polaris, a Washington-based anti-trafficking organization that operates the U.S. National Human Trafficking Hotline (1-888-373-7888), social media platforms are used to recruit trafficking victims, facilitate trafficking operations and control victims through online impersonation, lies and rumors. (Polaris also observes that the platforms can enable victims and survivors to reach out for help and build supportive networks.)

Along with usage, production of the devices used to access social media platforms poses risks of human trafficking, as a number of metals and minerals are required for commonly used devices, with many such commodities mined under conditions that endanger and exploit low-paid workers.

A November 2023 hearing by the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China noted that the mining of cobalt -- used in rechargeable batteries and semiconductors, among other applications -- is "linked to grave human rights abuses, including the exposure of miners to unsafe worksites and reliance on child and forced ... labor, as well as environmental degradation."

"Resources are often extracted from impoverished regions at a high human cost, with children and adults working under inhumane conditions for minimal earnings," said the alliance in its letter. "The rare and valuable minerals that are vital to the products offered by your companies are made possible by the human hands that extract these natural resources from the earth, often at the hands of children and those forced to labor."

While noting that some steps have been taken over the past decade or so to improve ethical sourcing in supply chains, more work remains to be done, said the alliance.

The organization urged tech leaders to take five specific action steps:

-- Ensure exploitation-free supply chain practices, including eradicating child labor and modern-day slavery;

-- Offer fair wages and safeguard fair labor practices;

-- Explore alternatives to high-risk mining;

-- Provide education, training and resources on awareness and prevention of human trafficking;

-- Assist victims of human trafficking and forced labor.

"The decisions you make today will shape an ethical landscape for technology," the Alliance to End Human Trafficking said. "Your platforms hold the power to bring people together. We believe the same power can be harnessed to dismantle networks that traffic in human lives. We call for you to join us through collaboration, acknowledgment, and action."