Another major scandal has erupted for social media giant Facebook after a South Sudanese teen was auctioned as a child bride in late October, reports Vice.
The post offering 16-year-old Nyalong Ngong for sale remained on the website for 15 days before Facebook removed it. By then, Ngong was already purchased and married to Kok Alat, who offered over 500 cows, three Land Cruisers and $10,000 in exchange for the teen. Five other men participated in the auction, which included local officials and the deputy governor.
Despite various appeals made by human rights group, a 16 year old girl child became a victim to an online marriage auction post, which was not taken down by Facebook in South Sudan. Sinking part is that people are now opting for social media for fulfilling orthodox rituals. pic.twitter.com/tj4cMADeFN
— H4Human (@h4humanrights) November 20, 2018
A Facebook spokesperson released a statement regarding the abuse of the website to promote this form of human trafficking.
"Any form of human trafficking — whether posts, pages, ads or groups is not allowed on Facebook. We removed the post and permanently disabled the account belonging to the person who posted this to Facebook," the rep said.
"We're always improving the methods we use to identify content that breaks our policies, including doubling our safety and security team to more than 30,000 and investing in technology," they continued.
Photos then circulated of the new bride appearing unhappy at her wedding ceremony, but the sell-off was considered a success for the family due to the lavish dowry.
“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,” George Otim, country director of Plan International South Sudan, said in a statement.
The organization reported that 12 million girls marry before the age of 18 internationally, with 38 percent becoming child brides In Sub-Saharan Africa alone. While child marriage is illegal in South Sudan, it is considered a cultural practice that the human rights group seeks to investigate.
“Plan International is calling on the South Sudanese government to investigate this matter and suspend any officials who took part in the bidding. We would encourage any girls who find themselves in similar situations of forced and early marriages to report these to the police,” Otim continued.
According to UNICEF’s 2017 child marriage data, 52 percent of Sudanese girls were married before the age of 18.
Now, check these out:
This Interracial Couple Was Fined After The N-Word Was Painted On Their Home
