Endangered Species: How YouTube Encourages the Trade in Exotic Animals

The unsustainable trade in wild species is growing exponentially, largely due to its widespread accessibility via the Internet. Access to social media has upended the rules of wildlife trafficking, but to what extent? A new study shows that YouTube contributes to promoting the wildlife trade through videos featuring endangered wild species. The authors emphasize the urgent need to update online media’s content usage and management policies to better regulate this type of popular content, with the goal of educating the public and raising awareness about animal conservation.   Wildlife trafficking is rampant worldwide and jeopardizes the global conservation of many species. The unsustainable trade in exotic species poses a major threat to biodiversity, in addition to being an issue of animal welfare and public health. While global regulations exist through the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wildlife (CITES), this does not prevent the overexploitation of certain species or illegal harvesting. To enable the implementation of more effective regulations and preserve wild populations, it is therefore urgent to identify the actors and drivers of this trade, as well as the channels used by traffickers to sell captured wild animals—channels that have evolved alongside the development of new technologies. Indeed, access to the trade in exotic pets has been facilitated by the widespread use of the Internet. Social media, due to its influence on public perception, has been identified as a major driver of this trade. Social media has changed the way society accesses, consumes, and shares information. It has become a source of news, entertainment, and information, but much of the content posted is unregulated due to poorly defined rules that are difficult to enforce given the volume of data uploaded. As a result, social media not only allows the public to access unregulated content related to the wild animal trade but also facilitates access to this trade as never before, thereby contributing to the globalization of the market. With more than two billion users in 2020, YouTube is the world’s largest online video platform and is therefore considered one of the most influential social media platforms. In particular, YouTube allows users to upload, create, share, and interact with content featuring wild animals being handled or interacting with humans. It is therefore potentially a means of influencing public perception and thus promoting demand for exotic pets. However, the actual significance of this medium as a driver of the exotic pet trade has never really been studied. An Australian study therefore examined the general public’s perception of species such as felines and primates when they are featured in popular YouTube videos, before assessing the impact on the trade in wild animals and species conservation. A total of 346 videos featuring exotic animals interacting with other species, including humans, were included in the study and categorized into three groups: positive, negative, or neutral interactions. Several techniques for analyzing the emotions evoked by these images were used, including the analysis of comments and emojis associated with the videos, to determine their impact on YouTube users. The findings reveal that public perception is predominantly positive in response to the exploitation of the animals featured in the videos. Most of the featured species (tigers, lions, cheetahs, vervet monkeys, capuchin monkeys, etc.) are, however, listed on the IUCN Red List.

Regardless of the lack of public awareness regarding the conservation status of these species, this generally positive attitude toward the animals shown—most of which are described as “cute”—contributes to the normalization, and thus the desirability and subsequent acquisition, of exotic pets.

  These findings underscore the urgent need to make changes to the policies of social media platforms, including YouTube, and to implement a content management system to avoid promoting animal trafficking and, instead, to educate and raise awareness about wildlife conservation. To discourage user engagement, it would be beneficial to provide them with targeted information on animal welfare issues, potential zoonotic risks, and the legal consequences of owning exotic animals, in addition to the implications for the conservation of endangered species. Similarly, more specific regulations governing online content would help combat the trend of keeping exotic animals as pets and prevent the legitimization of the trade in these species.