Wildlife cybercrime now under special surveillance in the European Union

(PARIS – 28 March 2025) – The first formal appointment of a wildlife conservation organisation as a Trusted Flagger in the European union (EU) will work to highlight online activity by wildlife criminals. 

Online platforms used by the criminals will now be legally bound to respond and prioritise materials identified as illegal by IFAW. This status has been granted by the French Digital Services Coordinator, the Regulatory Authority for Audiovisual and Digital Communication (ARCOM).  

The Trusted Flagger provision is a component of the EU Digital Services Act (DSA) – the EU regulation that defines clear responsibilities and accountabilities for online platforms. Organisations with this status are formally recognised to identify and notify the platforms of the presence of illegal online content in their respective specialisms. This could be hate speech, terrorist content or in IFAW’s case, wildlife crime, and report it to the host platforms.  

IFAW will focus on wildlife cybercrime, including exotic pets such as protected species of snakes or parrots being illegally offered on social media platforms and ecommerce websites, whereby it might be difficult for non-specialists to determine what animals cannot be traded legally. 

Prioritising IFAW-identified posts will fast-track the process of removing harmful wildlife advertisements, quickly reducing their impact, reach, and virality. It will also incentivise the platforms to be more proactive in preventing protected animals being traded in the first place, as there can be fines for non-compliance. This mechanism complements IFAW’s existing collaboration with online platforms across the world. 

“It’s time to make it clear that the internet is not a lawless space—by reducing the illegal supply online, we can cut demand and, in turn, disrupt the supply chain and decrease poaching on the ground. Wildlife criminals are causing untold harm on ecosystems, suffering on wild animals, and deceit on the customers that unwittingly buy them”, said Eugénie Pimont, Wildlife Cybercrime Officer, IFAW.  

“Many people such as animal lovers and hobbyists, stumble across the sales of wild animals online, and wrongly believe that they can provide a safe and loving home for them. Yet they aren’t aware that so many of these animals could have been poached from the wild, and that many trafficked animals die in transit”.   

“We welcome this recognition and collaboration with ARCOM, aiming to combat this type of cyber-enabled organised crime”, Pimont added.  

Wild animals are often directly stolen from the wild, crammed into containers so tightly they can’t move, and smuggled around the world – many die in transit.  

Trade and trafficking of wildlife is worth billions annually. Millions of wild animals are killed, caught, bred, bought and sold across the globe every year to meet consumer demand for live animals, parts and products. Illegal wildlife trade has become big business for organised criminal gangs, often linked to other types of organised crimes such as firearms, human and drugs trafficking, as it offers a lucrative, low risk, high reward prospect.   

ENDS 

Notes to editors 

• Imagery / video can be found via hightail HERE. 
• Becoming a Trusted Flagger builds on existing work that is already being done by IFAW with online market platforms, including via the Coalition to End Wildlife Trafficking Online, offering advice on how to improve processes to fight wildlife cybercrime.  
• The Trusted Flagger status was granted to IFAW France by the French Digital Services Coordinator, the Regulatory Authority for Audiovisual and Digital Communication (ARCOM). While the status is formally granted to IFAW France and flagging activities will be centralized through this entity, other IFAW entities operating globally will collaborate with IFAW France to identify and flag illegal content offered to EU citizens on online platforms, acting under IFAW France’s name, in compliance with the Digital Services Act. 
• If platforms fail to comply with the DSA, they may face fines of up to 6% of their annual worldwide turnover. Alternatively, disputes can also be resolved through an out-of-court settlement process.  
• Wildlife crime is increasingly being recognised as a serious threat within the EU, as referenced by Europol in their report released March 2025 (p66).     

Press Contacts: 

Kirsty Warren 
Senior Communications Manager 
m: +44 (0) 7809 269 747 
e: kwarren@ifaw.org