Articles, Reports, and Op-Eds
Dawn Mena
Opinion: Can the Taliban and Syria’s al-Qaida Offshoot Actually Protect Cultural Heritage?
1 September 2023
In Afghanistan, where they notoriously blew up the treasured Bamiyan Buddhas when they were last in power in 2001, the Taliban are now claiming that protecting the country’s vast cultural heritage “is our national priority.”
Springer
Social Change and Transformation in the Gulf Region
22 March 2023
Social change is an integral part of human social behavior and a phenomenon that is continuously happening around us. We constantly challenge existing social structures and institutions and transform them by contesting the cultural norms and values upon which they are founded. While such disruption may seem at the superficial level a negative form of disorder, in reality, it represents the way in which societies develop and evolve over time. Social change involves a cultural transformation often as part of an adaptive response to an ever-changing world around us.
The Mercury News
Opinion: Biden had it right the first time. Facebook is killing People
23 June 2021
From facilitating genocide to COVID-19 disinformation, tech titan is causing many people to lose their lives.
NETCHER
Facebook Fueling the Illicit Antiquities Trade Across the Middle East and North Africa
1 March 2021
ATHAR Project and the Alliance to Counter Crime Online (ACCO) contributed posters about the ongoing initiatives to fight looting and trafficking of cultural goods.
Alliance to Counter Crime Online
Two Clicks Away: Wildlife Sales on Facebook
1 October 2020
In March 2018, Facebook joined the Coalition to End Wildlife Trafficking Online, pledging alongside 30 major tech firms to remove 80% of wildlife trafficking content from their platforms by 2020. Two years on, the Alliance to Counter Crime Online (ACCO) conducted a study that found Facebook failed to keep its promise. In just two mouse clicks, our researchers could locate substantial illicit wildlife content.
Foreign Affairs
Opinion: Facebook’s Flawed Plan to End Antiquities Trafficking
1 July 2020
Evidence of War Crimes Must Be Preserved, Not Destroyed.
PRESS RELEASE
ATHAR Project and CINTOC Joint Statement on Updated Securities and Exchange Commission Filing on Facebook Crime
27 May 2020
Internet crime watchdog organizations Center on Illicit Network and Organized Crime (CINTOC) and the Alliance to Counter Crime Online (ACCO) have released a major new filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission regarding ongoing crime and terrorism content on Facebook.
Alliance to Counter Crime Online
Facebook’s Community Standards Game: Antiquities Trafficking
1 May 2020
Facebook just released its Community Standards updates for May 2020, an event that only comes once every few months. The change included updates to the section on Regulated Goods, the rules that dictate what types of items can and cannot be sold on the platform. Unfortunately, the sale of stolen and looted artifacts are still not mentioned in Facebook’s Community Standards.
Alliance to Counter Crime Online
Facebook Antiquities Looters Remain Active as Pandemic Rages On
6 April 2020
The coronavirus pandemic has pushed much of the world online as countries move to enforce quarantine and social distancing measures. Posts in Facebook Groups for antiquities trafficking in the Middle East and North Africa show that looting at archaeological sites continues while authorities are occupied elsewhere.
Alliance to Counter Crime Online
Instagram Just Created Reporting for Endangered Species — Almost One Year After it Was Listed in Their Community Guidelines
1 March 2020
Facebook and Instagram have relied on their users to report content — including criminal activity — rather than looking for the content proactively. The illegal sale of endangered species on Instagram is no exception.
Alliance to Counter Crime Online
Facebook Is The Biggest Marketplace of Illegal Antiquities
3 July 2019
What is the biggest marketplace for illegal antiquities? Social media, in particular Facebook. Only 15 years old, Facebook has revolutionized the way we exchange and consume ideas, information and merchandise.
Morning Consult
Opinion: Time to Clean Up Facebook’s Dark Side
25 June 2019
The world’s largest social media company does more than just connect people. Facebook has also become a repository for massive online criminal markets and terrorist groups.
WORLD POLItics review
The Middle East’s Other Facebook Revolution: Antiquities Trafficking in the Digital Age
14 August 2018
Looters are now targeting material with a previously unseen level of precision—a practice that Facebook makes remarkably easy.
middle east institute
ISIS Eyes Tunisia’s Cultural Heritage as Militants Return
9 November 2017
In a region with tens of thousands of archaeological sites, antiquities are as easily accessible as oil for terrorist groups controlling such archaeologically rich territory.
Presentations and Panels
United Nations – Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED)
CTED, UNICRI host Expert Group Meeting on cultural heritage smuggling and its nexus with terrorism
24 March 2024
While cultural heritage smuggling is not a new phenomenon, the rise of Da’esh and Al Qaeda affiliates has raised the alarm internationally on the looting of cultural property for terrorism financing. Since the early 1980s, terrorist and insurgent groups have been exploiting the lucrative illegal market of cultural artifacts to fund their activities. Addressing this, the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED) and the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) convened an Expert Group Meeting (EGM) this week to foster collaboration among global experts and stakeholders in tackling this multifaceted challenge and threat.
Qatar National Library
Workshop – The 2nd Doha Workshop on Countering the Trafficking of Cultural Property with a Focus on Documentary Heritage
12 September 2023
The phenomenon of illegal trafficking in cultural heritage has grown in the Arab region and the Middle East over the last decade, mainly due to civil unrest, armed conflicts, and natural disasters in the region. Special awareness, attention, and global coordination is paramount to combatting artifact smuggling and transit in the region and beyond.
Qatar National Library
Alliance for the Education of Women ‘Removing Barriers’
21 June 2023
The Alliance’s working group on heritage protection includes Dr Amr Al Azm from Qatar University and the Athar Project. As part of the meeting, delegates toured the library’s heritage collection, gaining insights into the significance of Afghan cultural property within the broader context of global heritage.
Victoria & Albert Museum CULTURE IN CRISIS: 2023 Tblisi Conference
Post-Conflict Reconstruction of Cultural Heritage in the Middle East and North Africa
28 April 2023
The Georgian National Museum, in collaboration with the Victoria & Albert Museum’s Culture in Crisis Programme, the Centre for Study and Promotion of Natural and Cultural Heritage of Georgia, the Rathgen Research Laboratory with the National Museums Berlin and the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, are preparing for a major international conference to be held from 26 – 29 April 2023, in Tbilisi, Georgia.
ASOR
Antiquities Trafficking in the Age of Social Media: How Big Tech Facilitates and Profits from the Digital Black Market
26 January 2023
Friends of ASOR present the next webinar in our monthly series on January 26, 2023, at 6:00pm EST, featuring Katie A. Paul and moderated by Prof. Eric Cline. From the invasion of Ukraine to conflict in Syria, tech platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok have democratized global engagement in black markets.
Everyday Orientalism
The Gates 3: Ancient Studies, Heritage and War – #EOTalks panel
16 November 2022
As a way to show support and mobilize more conversation and actions from colleagues and students, we are hosting a special virtual panel featuring a stellar, international and interdisciplinary panel of scholars from/working on Syria, Egypt, Iraq, Yemen and Ukraine. Themes to be discussed include students’ dislocation; heritage and trauma; refugee scholars; what can be done to help; looting and heritage/history destruction; the illicit trade.
Dr. Amr Al-Azm
Everyday Orientalism:
The Gates 3: Ancient Studies, Heritage and War – #EOTalks panel
Katie Paul
Everyday Orientalism:
The Gates 3: Ancient Studies, Heritage and War – #EOTalks panel
United Nations – Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED)
CTED hold a virtual roundtable on “Threat and Trends: The Illicit Traffic of Cultural Property for Terrorist Purposes”
7 September 2022
While condemning the destruction of cultural heritage in contexts of armed conflicts, including and notably by terrorist groups, the United Nations Security Council has highlighted on different occasions the role that the illicit trade and trafficking in cultural property can have in generating revenue to support recruitment efforts and strengthen the operational capacity of terrorist groups to organize and carry out attacks.
Dr. Amr Al-Azm
UNCTED Threat and Trends: The Traffic and Illicit Trade of Cultural Property for Terrorist Purposes
Katie Paul
UNCTED Threat and Trends: The Traffic and Illicit Trade of Cultural Property for Terrorist Purposes
Carleton University
[Video] How Tech Companies and Antiquities Traffickers Profit by Katie Paul
9 August 2022
How Tech Companies and Antiquities Traffickers Profit from the Unregulated Digital Black Market by Katie Paul (ATHAR) Session 5. North America Session and Closing, Organised by Shawn Graham at Carleton University, Canada, Cultural Heritage Crime Conference 2022, August 1-3 2022
ASOR
[Video] ASOR Early Career Scholars Research in Action: “Social Media’s Antiquities Black Market” with Katie Paul
24 June 2022
Katie Paul (Co-director and founder, ATHAR project) will give the second seminar in the Term II UCL Institute of Archaeology thematic series on Ethical Challenges in Researching (Il)licit Antiquities on 17 January.
UCL
How Trafficking Networks and Tech Companies Profit from the Online Black Market in Antiquities
17 January 2022
Katie Paul (Co-director and founder, ATHAR project) will give the second seminar in the Term II UCL Institute of Archaeology thematic series on Ethical Challenges in Researching (Il)licit Antiquities on 17 January.
ASOR
The Social Dilemma: How Social Media Platforms Accelerate Antiquities Trafficking and Control Online Communities
19 November 2021
Investigative and digital ethnographic research into online trafficking communities has generated new insights into how traffickers become online influencers and, in doing so, helps to control the material that is offered in their digital black markets.
UNESCO
The fight against the illicit trafficking of cultural property: for a strengthened global dialogue
14 September 2021
Organised by UNESCO, in partnership with the European Union and in the framework of the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the 1970 Convention, this international conference brings together all the actors in the fight against illicit trafficking of cultural property to dialogue on a united and collaborative approach to strengthen the fight against illicit trafficking of cultural property at the global level and on concrete activities to be implemented.
Cranfield University
Cranfield Forensic Institute Cultural Heritage Crime Conference
12 June 2021
Katie A. Paul, Co-Director of the ATHAR Project discusses the the current state of Facebook antiquities black market.
Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime
[Video] Culture in Ruins: The illicit trade in cultural property in North and West Africa
20 November 2020
The illicit trade in cultural property – cultural goods and looted archaeological objects, highly valued on international markets – is one of the greatest threats to heritage in North and West Africa.
UNIDROIT
Combatting Illicit Trafficking of Cultural Property during COVID-19 – illicit excavations and online trade
26 June 2020
The debate will be opened and moderated by Ernesto Ottone R. (UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Culture). It will bring together international experts on illegal excavations and online trade, including Katie A. Paul and Amr Al Azm (ATHAR Project), Corrado Catesi (INTERPOL), Marina Schneider (UNIDROIT), Vincent Michel (University of Poitiers, France), Mariya Polner (World Customs Organization), Eva Martinez (Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History, Honduras), Christos Tsirogannis (University of Aarhus, Denmark) and Lazare Eloundou (UNESCO).
UNIDROIT
Combatting Illicit Trafficking of Cultural Property during COVID-19 – illicit excavations and online trade
Center for Art Law
WYWH: Lawyers’ Committee on Cultural Heritage Protection 10th Annual Conference
23 April 2019
On April 5th, 2019, the Lawyers’ Committee on Cultural Heritage Protection (“LCCHP”) held its tenth annual conference at the Georgetown Law Center in Washington DC, on the topic of contemporary perspectives on cultural heritage.
Victoria & Albert Museum CULTURE IN CRISIS: 2018 Pretoria CONFERENCE
[VIDEO] Tracking 21st Century Traffickers: Facebook’s Illicit Antiquities Problem
October 2018
Facebook has democratized the trafficking of illicit antiquities on a global scale.