The Legal Working Committee of the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF-LWC) has received multiple whistleblowing reports from volunteers recently, indicating that online platforms such as WeChat and Taobao are selling the endangered wild plants, the wild Conophytum which is obviously poached from Africa. This species is native to South Africa and Namibia, and its sale in China is considered illegal. In order to combat illegal wildlife trade and build a shared community for all life, CBCGDF-LWC has sent official letters to Tencent and Taobao respectively, demanding that these platforms take concrete actions to investigate and crack down on illegal sellers who trade endangered Conophytum plants.
On May 6th, 2023, CBCGDF-LWC received a response from Tencent, stating that "WeChat has always been committed to cracking down on the publication of illegal and infringing content on our platform and has established a corresponding complaint reporting mechanism. Regarding the situation mentioned by your organization, we cannot do much. Please tell the reporting users to submit complaints by themselves. Once our platform receives their complaints, we will evaluate them promptly."
However, LWC's professional lawyers believe that Tencent's response is an attempt to evade responsibility. The lawyers pointed out that online platforms should establish or use platform mechanisms to investigate, review and deal with suspected illegal trade of endangered wildlife, rather than repeatedly asking whistleblowers to report on the platform. Responsible e-commerce and social-media companies should be committed to safeguarding the public interest and take the initiative to investigate illegal activities conducted through their platforms, instead of repeatedly evading responsibility and requiring whistleblowers to provide firsthand information.
Wildlife trafficking through online platforms has become increasingly difficult to investigate. If internet companies do not take their due social and legal responsibilities, the hidden illegal wildlife trade will be massive, and the damage to the ecological environment will be very serious.
Article 6 of the Environmental Protection Law of the People's Republic of China stipulates that "All entities and individuals have an obligation to protect the environment. Enterprises, institutions, and other production and business operators shall prevent and reduce environmental pollution and ecological damage and shall be held responsible for the damages caused in accordance with the law."
WeChat and Taobao are well-known internet/social-media companies with hundreds of millions of users, and they should shoulder their corporate social responsibilities by actively guiding online users to abide by the law and prohibiting illegal online wildlife trade.
Reporter: Zishu
Translator: Wendy
Editor: Victoria
Contact: v10@cbcgdf.org; +8617319454776
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