Silicon Valley's Online Slave Market

Silicon Valley's Online Slave Market

2019, Crime  -   7 Comments
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Ratings: 8.31/10 from 39 users.

Up to 90% of households in Kuwait employ domestic workers. A government law passed in 2015 guaranteed these workers new rights, including one day off from work each week. In the aftermath of this new legislation, their employers became disgruntled by the limitations that were now imposed upon them. This marked the birth of a new industry boom – an online community where domestic workers are sold and exploited like slaves. In Silicon Valley's Online Slave Market, BBC News Africa goes undercover to explore the inner workings of this criminal enterprise.

This new form of human trafficking is made possible with the use of popular apps endorsed by major companies like Google, Facebook, Instagram and Apple. Under this black market system, a domestic employee is susceptible to repulsive abuses. If they dare to quit their jobs, they can be imprisoned.

In order to expose this corrupt network hiding in plain sight, the documentary crew launches an ambitious undercover sting operation. Two reporters take to these apps and pose as a couple in need of a full-time domestic servant. They browse internet listings for human beings which run alongside apartment rentals and used car sales. Candidates are not presented as merely providers of professional services; once hired, they essentially become the buyer's property.

The undercover team meets with a seller who offers up a 16-year old girl who has been taken from her home in Guinea, West Africa. Much of the film consists of their quest to save this vulnerable underaged girl from a horrendous fate. They enlist the assistance of local authorities and social workers, capture the nefarious activities of the slave trade with their hidden cameras, speak with additional victims who have barely escaped years of abuse, and work to hold the world's most popular social media providers accountable for their role in this crisis.

Silicon Valley's Online Slave Market is a sobering account of the indignities suffered by those who are helpless in the whirl of this popular online slave trade. The documentary crew's mission to save one girl from these perils injects the film with a tremendous sense of urgency.

Directed by: Jess Kelly

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Peter Connell
Peter Connell
1 year ago

It is a myth that slavery has ended, & it is happening right under our western noses in various forms.
People smuggling is one. The cost is borrowed & the indentured migrant's debt is secured by his hostage family back home. They are in effect slaves to their employer.

Those who seek solace for despair in illegal drugs, are also outlaws & can abuse & be abused within their subculture.

We have so many fine sounding protective laws, the only catch being you need to drop your life & fund a court case requiring legal professionals at many hundreds of dollars per hour.

Try getting the state to prosecute blatant swindles on ur behalf unless u get some publicity?

They may prosecute & fine for their coffers, but restitution is a private court case. Good luck. They can out spend & out wait you.

Insure vs insure e.g. is grossly unequal eg.

Stuart Hogan
Stuart Hogan
2 years ago

These disgusting people who use poor people as slaves are little more than vermin

Angus
Angus
2 years ago

Funny that if the words COVID or vaccine are used on these platforms their AI immediately flags and “fact checks” it yet they are apparently unable, more likely unwilling, to stop facilitating real crimes against humanity like this

william
william
2 years ago

and you have these on the u n s human rights boards complain about the west while they live in the 7th century still

william
william
2 years ago

arrogant bastards how dare they get a day off and have a passport these c*nts would be selling sand castles if not for oil slave traders yet america is the big boogie man and this is rife in the Islamic world and god forbid they might have good time they could be beheaded in the town square disgusting culture

Michael Ericson
Michael Ericson
2 years ago

These companies should be punished for facilitating slavery!