Reverend Joseph E. Kurtz, D.D. Bishop | Archdiocese of Louisville

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 on 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 these platforms can enable victims and survivors to reach out for help and build supportive networks.

Along with usage issues, production of devices used to access social media platforms poses risks of human trafficking due to required metals and minerals often mined under conditions that endanger low-paid workers.

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

“Resources are often extracted from impoverished regions at a high human cost,” said the alliance in its letter. “The rare minerals vital for your products are made possible by hands extracting them under harsh conditions.”

While noting some steps have been taken over past years towards ethical sourcing in supply chains more work remains said the alliance urging tech leaders towards five specific actions:

— Ensure exploitation-free supply chain practices;

— Offer fair wages safeguard fair labor practices;

— Explore alternatives high-risk mining;

— Provide education training resources awareness prevention human trafficking;

— Assist victims forced labor.

“The decisions you make today will shape an ethical landscape for technology,” said The Alliance To End Human Trafficking.”Your platforms hold power bring people together we believe same power harnessed dismantle networks traffic lives call join collaboration acknowledgment action.”