Facebook Papers reveal company knew it profited from sex trafficking but took limited action to stop it

Editor's note: This story has been updated to include additional response from Facebook.

Facebook made a startling discovery while investigating how people used its products to exploit others: a U.S. sex trafficking network recruiting women from overseas and advertising illegal sexual services in domestic massage parlors. 

The Facebook team charged with protecting users from real-world harm highlighted the findings in a November 2019 report touting how its investigation had identified and disrupted a criminal network with 40 potential victims.

In truth, law enforcement was already on top of the crime. The FBI had launched an investigation nearly 2½ years earlier after tips from the National Human Trafficking Hotline. A local police department also was working the case in Florida after receiving an anonymous letter saying, “I hope that more girls will not get hurt anymore.”