Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to help ensure that social media companies do not allow people traffickers to use their platforms to advertise criminal activities such as sale of stolen passports.

We have identified social media as a key enabler for Organised Immigration Crime (OIC) and we know that social media platforms are used to advertise people smuggling services and facilitate communication throughout a migrant’s journey. It is used to publicise people smuggling services and facilitate encrypted communication throughout a migrant’s journey. Advertisements on platforms target vulnerable migrants at or near point of origin selling false or stolen documents, and facilitation packages to enter the UK, including across the Channel.

The Home Office and NCA are working with social media companies to remove OIC related content from their platforms. Many of the major social media companies (Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Tik Tok) have taken welcome action to identify and remove illegal online content. However, there is clearly more that can be done. That is why the UK Government supports the work that NCA is doing with social media companies to ensure their policies are consistently enforced, and to establish a good shared understanding of how the problem is being addressed.