A South Sudan family used Facebook to sell their teenage daughter off as a child bride in October, according to several news reports.
CNN reported that Facebook removed the post as soon as it was aware, but the girl was already married by then. The auction was reportedly put up on Oct. 25, but wasn’t removed until Nov. 9.
“We removed the post and permanently disabled the account belonging to the person who posted this to Facebook,” a company representative told CNN in a statement.
Plan International, a children’s rights organization, reported that the father received 500 cows, three cars and $10,000 for the girl. It also noted that some of the five men who placed bids were important people in South Sudan’s government.
The group demanded that South Sudan investigate the matter.
George Otim, country director of Plan International South Sudan, described the auction as a “barbaric use of technology” that reminds him of “latter-day slave markets.”
“That a girl could be sold for marriage on the world’s biggest social networking site in this day and age is beyond belief,” he wrote in a statement.
• Gabriella Muñoz can be reached at gmunoz@washingtontimes.com.
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