Facebook Libra Cryptocurrency Launch May Boost Illegal Trade In Antiquities - Researcher

The possible launch of Facebook's Libra cryptocurrency may inadvertently boost trade in looted antiquities from conflict zones, like Syria, through the social media platform, Amr al-Azm, co-director of the Antiquities Trafficking and Heritage Anthropology Research (ATHAR) Project, told Sputnik in an interview

GENOA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th November, 2019) The possible launch of Facebook's Libra cryptocurrency may inadvertently boost trade in looted antiquities from conflict zones, like Syria, through the social media platform, Amr al-Azm, co-director of the Antiquities Trafficking and Heritage Anthropology Research (ATHAR) Project, told Sputnik in an interview.

In June, Facebook announced its plans to launch Libra in 2020 and to create a digital wallet to make basic financial services more accessible around the world. Visa, MasterCard, PayPal and Uber Technologies were initially expected to invest some $10 million each in a consortium that would govern the digital coin. However, the initiative was met with harsh criticism from European leaders and the US Congress. As a result, many partners pulled out from the project.

"Can you imagine how much easier it is going to be now for these people to buy and sell? We are really worried about that. It is going to make the situation much worse. Trafficking that occurs on Facebook is not just looted antiquities," al-Azm, a founding member of the Alliance to Counter Crime Online, said.

He remarked that Facebook had yet to address the initial problem of the illegal antiquities trade via the social network.�

"Without Facebook addressing the initial problem of what is being sold on its platform, by launching the currency they are just adding yet another way to make the platform even more attractive for these people to do their business. From the Facebook monetization perspective, it is perfect of course. They make money off it. The revenue is too good," he continued.

Al-Azm co-authored the ATHAR Project's report that studied the digital market in looted antiquities from the Middle East and North Asia and in particular looks into the activities of 95 Arabic Facebook groups using the platform for antiquities trafficking. In the report, which was published in June after two years of investigative research, the project found that individuals associated with Islamic State and Hayat Tahrir ash-Sham terrorist organizations (both banned in Russia) were among the members of these groups.