Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are among social media companies that have ignored requests by the National Crime Agency to take down pages on their sites used by people traffickers.
Rob Jones, the agency’s director of threat leadership, said that social media channels were used by gangs to publicise smuggling routes and advertise false or stolen documents. Between January and May it referred 1,218 pages to the relevant companies for closure. As of September 3,578 of them were closed but 485 remained open and decisions were awaited in relation to 155.
In a letter to MPs on the home affairs committee Mr Jones wrote: “The main reasons provided by social media companies for pages not being removed include that the page does not contravene their policies
