Teen Girl Auctioned For Marriage On Facebook For Cows, Cars And $10,000

A 16-year-old girl in South Sudan was auctioned off for marriage on Facebook for 500 cows, three luxury cars and $10,000. Just a few days after the post circulated online, she was purchased by a wealthy businessman to be his wife, according to Reuters.

The incident took place in October, when a family posted a Facebook message calling for men to place bids for their daughter. The incident triggered widespread criticism as the post was not taken down by Facebook until Nov. 9. According to children's rights organization Plan International, the girl was bid on by five men, some of whom were reportedly high-ranking South Sudanese government officials.

“This barbaric use of technology is reminiscent of latter-day slave markets," Plan International's country director in South Sudan, George Otim, said. "That a girl could be sold for marriage on the world’s biggest social networking site in this day and age is beyond belief... While it is common for dowries to be used in marriages in South Sudanese culture, nothing can excuse the way this girl – who is still a child – has been treated as nothing more than an object, sold off to the bidder prepared to offer the most money and goods."

More than 50 percent of underage girls in South Sudan are married, despite the legal age of marriage being 18.

After facing backlash, Facebook told Reuters that it removed the post and the user from its platform for violating its community standards.

"Any form of human trafficking -- whether posts, pages, ads or groups is not allowed on Facebook. We removed the post and permanently disabled the account belonging to the person who posted this to Facebook," a company spokesperson said in a statement. "We're always improving the methods we use to identify content that breaks our policies, including doubling our safety and security team to more than 30,000 and investing in technology."

Equality Now, an organization focused on gender equality, called on Facebook to improve its monitoring practices.

"Violations against women in South Sudan are a continuing issue, but for Facebook to allow their platform to enhance these violations is a problem," Judy Gitau, Equality Now's regional coordinator for Africa, said.