Refugee advocates in Logan are trying to protect a group of Afghan men after a viral Tik Tok video last week wrongly accused them of human trafficking at a carnival.

• The men, who served alongside the U.S. military in Afghanistan, fled to Utah after the Taliban took over the country last year.

What's happening: The Tik Tok video shows the men filming carnival rides on their cell phones, with captions from the person filming them saying the men had no children with them and exhorting viewers to "STOP HUMAN TRAFFICKING!!!"

But actually: The men were showing the carnival to their families in Afghanistan via video chat, said Danny Beus, executive director of Cache Refugee and Immigrant Connection.

• The video was viewed more than two million times and remained online for days — even after refugee advocates told its creator the men were refugees and not human traffickers.

Why it matters: The men's faces are visible along with information about their location, which puts them at risk of vigilantism, a tactic previously used by anti-trafficking activists, according to the FBI.

• Their exposure through a viral video could also put their families at risk, Beus said.
• "We just want everyone to be safe," Beus told Axios.

The big picture: Anti-trafficking campaigns have flooded Utah and the rest of the nation in recent years, fueling panic over child abductions as they claim to "raise awareness."

• Unsubstantiated reports of trafficking are popular on TikTok, where users share their...

Read Full Story: https://www.axios.com/local/salt-lake-city/2022/08/09/child-trafficking-panic...