Facebook has announced that it will no longer enable the sale of land in Amazon rainforest conservation areas through its marketplaces or its Instagram and WhatsApp services. The announcement came as Facebook defended itself against charges that it has always prioritized business over societal good, prompting some online to wonder why it had allowed sales of precious rainforest land in the first place.
“We are updating our commerce policies to explicitly prohibit the buying or selling of land of any type in ecological conservation areas on our commerce products across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp,” Facebook said in a post. “Protected areas are crucial for conserving habitats and ecosystems and are critical to tackling the global nature crisis.”
Facebook said that it will check listings on its online marketplace to detect and prohibit ads for amazon rain forest land sales. The sale of land in protected zones occurs on other platforms and offline, but Facebook is attempting to prevent it from occurring in its family of applications.
