BBC exposes global online monkey torture network.
After a year-long investigation, the BCC World Service’s investigation unit has uncovered a global monkey-torture ring. The torture ring which began on Youtube later moved to private groups on the encrypted messaging app, Telegram and dark web forums. BBC journalists found that it consists of hundreds of customers in the US, United Kingdom and elsewhere where people would gather torture ideas and commission people in Indonesia or other parts of Asia to carry them out. The goal of it was to create bespoke films in which baby long tailed macaques are abused, tortured and sometimes, even killed.
The BBC interviewed participants, including one of the distributors, Mike McCartney, who said that polls were set up of a nature asking “Do you want a hammer involved? Do you want pliers involved? Do you want a screwdriver?”, describing the resulting video as “the most grotesque thing I have ever seen.” A ring leader whose name could not be revealed for safety reasons confessed he was responsible of at least four monkeys and torture of many more.
BBC journalists went undercover in one of the main Telegram groups and tracked down torturers in Indonesia and distributors and buyers in the US and gained access to an international law enforcement effort to bring them to justice. At least 20 people are now under investigation globally including in the US, United Kingdom and Indonesia, with the police continuing their pursuit. In spite of this, monkey torture videos remain easily accessible on telegram and Facebook, with the latter saying that it removes content of this nature when aware of it. The Telegram messaging app responded to the BBC saying that moderators could not pro-actively patrol private groups and that it was “committed to protecting user privacy and human rights such as freedom of speech.”
The recent news on the torture ring is by no means an isolated incident. A report 2021 called “Making Money for Misery” blew the lid off this phenomenon. In the 13 months examined by the report alone, there were 5480 individual videos of this nature found on social media. In 2022, another report entitled “Teasing for Torture” detailed the rising number of images and videos depicting the torture of animals.
Torture of animals for the purpose of entertainment have been documented to include drownings, breaking limbs, killing mothers, staged fights, burning, psychological abuse and even mutilation while alive, killing and sexual abuse. Content creators and social media platforms profit from videos of this nature and platforms and animal welfare organizations struggle to tackle this issue and social media platforms continue to let it go largely unaddressed, even where complaints are made on the platform, they often fail to remove the content.
Recently, animal welfare organizations have called for animal abuse to be included in the Animal Safety Bill. The Bill aims to protect children and vulnerable populations from “illegal” or “harmful” content. Polling by the RPSCA in 2018 indicated that almost a quarter of 10-18 year old have witnessed animal abuse online. The government was, however, of the view that animal offences “cannot be committed online” and have resisted calls to include it in the Bill.
Courtesy of Claire Lai
Main Source: BBC