Apple’s threat to axe site for aiding ‘slave’ maid trade

APPLE threatened to pull Facebook and Instagram from its app store because they were being used to traffic women to work as maids in the Middle East, leaked documents reveal.

Facebook acknowledged it was not doing enough to prevent its platforms from assisting the abusive trade – and Apple relented.

But the incident two years ago appears to have had little effect, with a quick search showing accounts in Arabic of African and South Asian women with ages and prices next to their picture.

It raises yet further questions over Facebook’s duty of care to its users and is one of a series of shocking revelations yesterday after a consortium of 17 news publishers were given access to a trove of internal documents.

It was also revealed how Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and senior executives intervened to allow US politicians and celebrities to post content that broke its rules, while dissidents were censored in Vietnam.

Staff were said to have reported concerns about the platform’s inaction in tackling hate speech for years. They accused Facebook of facilitating the storming of the US Capitol in January by a far-Right mob.