HRW flags social media glamorizing rebels and recruiting Colombian children
Human Rights Watch says dozens of social media accounts glorify rebel life and appear to encourage children to join Colombia’s armed groups, with platforms like Meta and TikTok saying they prohibit such content and have removed flagged accounts. HRW ties most child-recruitment cases to a FARC holdout led by commander Ivan Mordisco, especially in Cauca; Indigenous children make up roughly half of recruitment cases since 2021, Indigenous people account for about 4% of the population, and girls constitute around 40% of recruited children. The group urges the government to prosecute recruiters and calls on social platforms to provide easy reporting channels and to preserve evidence for prosecutors.
