Facebook criticised for post promoting the auction of a child bride in South Sudan, which eventually led to the payment of the largest dowry ever recorded in the civil war-torn country. 
Company failed to remove post that informed users of auction of 17-year-old girl for several days. After it was taken down, other posts glorifying the auction still remained on Facebook. 

The highest bidder was a man three times the age of the 17-year-old girl who was auctioned. The girl, named as Nyalong by Associated Press (AP), became the man’s ninth wife. Photos posted on Facebook show her sitting beside the groom, wearing a lavish dress and staring at the floor.

At least four other men in Eastern Lakes state competed, including the region’s deputy governor, said Philips Anyang Ngong, a human rights lawyer who tried to stop the bidding last month.

“She has been reduced to a mere commodity,” Ngong told the Associated Press, calling it “the biggest test of child abuse, trafficking and auctioning of a human being. Everyone involved should be held accountable.”

A multimillionaire business tycoon from the country’s capital city of Juba won the auction, after offering 530 cows, two Land Cruiser V8 cars, $10,000 and some mobile phones in exchange for Nyalong Ngong Deng Jalang’s hand in marriage. The final bid prompted local media outlets to dub her the “most expensive bride in Africa.”

The bidding war caused local and international outrage.

The auction was advertised but not carried out on the site, and it took several days for Facebook to remove the post that first promoted the auction. After it was taken down, other posts “glorifying” the auction remained, said George Otim, country director for Plan International South Sudan.

“This barbaric use of technology is reminiscent of latter-day slave markets. That a girl could be sold for marriage on the world’s biggest social networking site in this day and age is beyond belief,” he said.

South Sudan has a deeply rooted cultural practice of paying dowries for brides, usually in the form of cows. The practice “threatens girls’ lives” and limits prospects for their future, said Dr Mary Otieno, the agency’s country representative. 

While South Sudan’s government condemns the practice of child marriage it says it can’t regulate communities’ cultural norms, especially in remote areas. The country also has a long history of child marriage. Even though that practice is now illegal, 40% of girls still marry before the age 18, according to the United Nations Population Fund.

Source: theguardian.com