Empower yourself: Stop sharing bad info on Facebook

Originally published in the Daily Advocate Feb. 14, 2020

By Bethany J. Royer-DeLong
Pushing Ink no. 22

I had plans for an entirely different column regarding wedding anniversaries and reconciliation
this week, but my impatience with Facebook has grown to a headachy, finger hovering over the
delete button level.

A sappy column will have to wait.

I’ve shared a little of the deficiency that is Facebook in a previous column, but the latest
headache, if you will, is the passing of bad information, not a new issue by any means. It is
almost a guarantee like death, taxes, and food stains on a white shirt that social media posts will
include wrong info. Sometimes dumb, too often misinformed just enough to be dangerous.

The culprit, in this latest case, concerns several false human trafficking warnings I’ve noticed in
my Facebook feed over the last few months. Those include but are not limited to zip-tied wiper
blades and money tucked into car door handles.

As a former program director with the Piqua YWCA, I spent a lot of time focused on human
trafficking. Attendance at the Annual Human Trafficking Awareness Day at the Ohio Statehouse
in Columbus was a particular highlight. I sat in on various conferences, including listening to law
enforcement share their experiences with human trafficking and hearing stories directly from
survivors.

However, I did not realize how pervasive the myths until we became a point of contact for local
authorities when misinformation went around the community on a potential human trafficker.

While vigilance to one’s surroundings is admirable and adamant, the disinformation shared on
social media concerning human trafficking cannot be dismissed. After telling several individuals
their information was wrong, and openly so in comments, I finally made one singular post to stop
it with the inclusion of an op-ed LA Times article on why sharing these posts is so bad.

Now here is my shortened version.

The problem starts with the misconception that human trafficking is a stranger lurking in a dark
corner, ready to pounce. Human trafficking or “modern-day slavery” as per the Victims of
Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 “involves the use of force, fraud, or coercion to
exploit another person through commercialized sex or involuntary labor.”

Sex trafficking is the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, obtaining, patronizing, or

soliciting of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act, in which a commercial sex act is
induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such an act has
not attained 18 years of age.
Labor trafficking is the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person
for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to
involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slaver

The keyword is exploitation with human trafficking generally perpetrated on the most vulnerable
in society, runaway and homeless youth, victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, and war or
those socially discriminated against, such as the LGBTQ community. The latter the statehouse
conference grossly left out of conversations much to my dismay, I must add.

Human trafficking is a multi-billion dollar industry around the globe, so yes, it happens
everywhere, but not by hijacking your windshield wipers or by looking conspicuous at the mall
or the grocery store.

The posts shared online seem to take a life of their own. What first starts as simple money tucked
into car handles includes versions of the bill as being tainted by drugs. So the victim would
“supposedly and purportedly” pass out upon touching it.

Windshield wiper blades not only have zip ties, but coins tucked between blades, and even socks.

While people are well-meaning, it is bad information to be sharing, and it hurts the actual victims
and survivors of human trafficking. It interferes with police investigations. The trick, as with
anything involving social media, is to empower yourself. A simple online search will quickly
provide results on these myth-laden stories or urban legends if you will. It takes only a few
minutes, a little homework, to check on whether posts are legit.

If you want to help, learn more about the signs of human trafficking, I’ve included a few great
resources that I utilized for this column below.

polarisproject.org

humantraffickingsearch.org

humantrafficking.ohio.gov

Bethany J. Royer-DeLong is a reporter for the Daily Advocate and Early Bird and a life-
long resident of Darke County. She holds a bachelor’s degree in work psychology and a master’s
degree in organizational leadership because she’s a sucker for all things jobs. You may reach her
at broyer-delong@aimmediamidwest.com.