This task may have been easier only a few years ago, when a large percentage of trafficking-linked activities were advertised, and reported, from listings on. To help investigators do that, Li has been developing machine learning algorithms that automatically analyze online commercial sex ads to reveal whether they are likely associated with human trafficking activities and if they belong to the same organization. We need to uncover the entirety of the network and disrupt it as a whole," says Lin Li, a researcher in the Artificial Intelligence Technology Group. "We cannot just disrupt pieces of an organized network, because many networks recover easily. One the most mature capabilities at the laboratory in countering human trafficking deals with the challenge of discovering large-scale, organized trafficking networks. "The goal is to come up with sustainable ways to partner on transitioning these prototypes out into the field," Daggett adds. The workshop was also an opportunity for the laboratory's researchers to present several advanced tools in development. This first-of-its-kind virtual event brought about discussions of how technology is used today, where gaps exist, and what opportunities exist for new partnerships. Most recently, he brought together almost 200 practitioners from 85 federal and state agencies, NGOs, universities, and companies for the Counter–Human Trafficking Technology Workshop at Lincoln Laboratory. There's not a lot of technology out there to pull it all together, and while there are pockets of tech activity, we see a lot of duplication of effort because this work is siloed across the community," he adds.īreaking down these silos has been part of Daggett's goal. "Taking advantage of digital evidence can be overwhelming for investigators. In July, Daggett testified at a congressional hearing about many of the current technology gaps and made several policy recommendations on the role of technology countering trafficking. "Traffickers are using technology to gain efficiencies of scale, from online commercial sex marketplaces to complex internet-driven money laundering, and we must also leverage technology to counter them," says Matthew Daggett, who is leading this research at the laboratory. Department of Homeland Security’s recent counter-trafficking strategy released in 2020. In 2019, the team compiled their findings and 29 targeted technology recommendations into a roadmap for the federal government. In recent years, researchers in the Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Systems Group have met with federal, state, and local agencies, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and technology companies to understand the challenges in identifying, investigating, and prosecuting trafficking cases. This increasing awareness has also motivated MIT Lincoln Laboratory, a federally funded research and development center, to harness its technological expertise toward combating human trafficking. In 2019, 11,500 situations of human trafficking in the United States were identified through the National Human Trafficking Hotline, and the federal government estimates there are nearly 25 million victims globally. The plan was motivated, in part, by a greater understanding of the pervasiveness of the crime. Last October, the White House released the National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking.
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