by The law enforcement agency said
That was an increase of 40 % compared to the 5,600 accounts removed in 2023 and means that a total of more than 16,500 were deleted since the NCA in December its social media action plan with META, X (formerly known as Twitter), TikTok and YouTube started in 2021.
The accounts deleted in the course of the operation included posts, in which the crossings with small boats from France to Great Britain were incorrectly advertised as journeys by speedboat and migrants who had advertised a friend were offered prizes and fake ID documents were offered for sale.
Others also offered transports from Africa to southern Europe.
Sophie Austin, operations manager in the NCA online communication center, said: “Social media remain an important opportunity for organized crime groups that are involved in the smuggling of people to advertise their illegal services to migrants.”
“It is an important part of your business model.
“As soon as migrants are engaged, they transfer talks to encrypted messaging apps, where they are hidden from the law enforcement authorities.
“The blocking of these accounts disturbs the activities of these criminal networks. We invest more resources for this, as this is one of several ways to actively target them and make their lives more difficult for them. ”
Amanj Hasan Zada from Preston was convicted in November and sentenced to 17 years in prison after it was found that he used video testimonials of people whom he had successfully smuggled to promote himself.
Two other men, Dilshad Shamo and Ali Khdir from Caerphilly in South Wales, also used social media apps to draw attention to their human smuggling company.
They were convicted in November last year and are waiting for their judgment.
Ms. Austin added: “We continue to work closely with social media platforms in order to highlight such content and to contribute to the development of identification functions.”
“As a result of our partnership with you, the number of accounts that we identified and deleted last year has increased significantly – an increase of more than 40 % since the end of 2023.”
The NCA started its commitment with the four social media platforms for the first time in December 2021, “to create an understanding of how organized criminals used their platforms to advertise illegal services and to restrict the possibilities of gangs, to exploit victims and dangerous To plan illegal crossings, ”said the authority.
