A new major global review shows that platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube are fuelling a fast-growing and difficult-to-track illegal wildlife trade. The University of Cape Town's (UCT) Dr Annette Hübschle, co-author of the study, said closing platform loopholes and strengthening enforcement would not be enough on their own. Durable solutions must put local communities at the centre and treat online wildlife trafficking as a whole-of-society challenge. A team of researchers monitoring online activity for six weeks in mid-2025 found more than 1 600 primates advertised for sale across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. Birds, snakes, frogs, orchids and many other species are increasingly traded in the same way. The new study, published in Nature Reviews Biodiversity, shows that thousands of animal, plant and fungal species, including many already threatened with extinction and some not previously identified as at risk, are being drawn into an increasingly sophisticated online marketplace as global demand grows. Dr Hübschle, chief research officer and co-lead of the Global Risk Governance Programme in UCT's Faculty of Law, is the study’s social scientist and its only Africa-based co-author. Her contribution brings a Global South and community-centred perspective to a field that has largely focused on detection technologies, enforcement and platform policy.