00:04Welcome to The Cube, your news'est fact-checking show.
00:07Second-hand clothing platform Vinted is at the centre of a social media storm.
00:11Users allege that the platform is being used to facilitate child trafficking across several EU countries.
00:17On the 15th of June, a French TikToker claimed to have found suspicious Vinted listings
00:22featuring unusually high prices and cryptic descriptions,
00:26suggesting they could be coded messages linked to child trafficking.
00:30Similar posts quickly spread across social media channels and discussion forums.
00:34We also found three listings displaying the same characteristics.
00:38One of them advertised the toy at unusually high price,
00:41with a description that appeared to refer to a child's age and physical appearance.
00:45The account and the listings were removed shortly after they were created.
00:49Vinted told us it had investigated the listings and found no credible evidence linking them to child trafficking.
00:55German police said they are investigating reports and had thus far concluded that many were fake.
01:01But they told us they had seen an uptick in reports since the 23rd of June.
01:05In France, prosecutors have opened a preliminary investigation to verify reports of suspected child trafficking linked to the platform.
01:13That investigation is ongoing and France's High Commissioner for Children has alerted the authorities and says it doesn't hurt to
01:20be careful.
01:20This is not the first time such claims about Vinted posts have circulated online.
01:25In November 2023, users on X and TikTok shared similar listings,
01:31alleging that Vinted was being used to facilitate child trafficking in France.
01:34However, no evidence emerged linking those listings to an organized child trafficking network.
01:39At the time, several French media outlets reported that the claims had been amplified by Cannes linked to the QAnon,
01:45a baseless conspiracy theory movement,
01:48claiming that Donald Trump is secretly fighting a global network of child traffickers
01:52within political, business and media elites.
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