Rhino Wars: Blood Horns and the digital frontline of extinction

In the shadows of our digital age, a silent war is raging—one that’s costing the world hundreds of millions of dollars annually and pushing one of Earth’s most iconic species closer to extinction. This is another war, a war that is not fought in the bush, but across the screens of our phones and laptops, buried within encrypted messages and coded hashtags. Social media has become one of the most powerful platforms enabling illegal wildlife trafficking.

Brazen wildlife criminals use private groups, social media pages, and coded language to evade detection. Reporting suspicious activity often triggers automated responses such as, “We didn’t detect any issues.” Social media giants, despite their enormous resources, are allowing illegal wildlife trade to surge and in turn fuelling the slaughter.

Social Media: A Marketplace for Crime

The Wildlife Justice Commission uncovered Facebook groups selling rhino horns using keywords like “traditional medicine” and “ceremonial items.”

On Instagram, dealers post images tagged with #luxurygoods, #holisticremedies, #traditionalmedicine, and other coded hashtags.

Payments are frequently made in cryptocurrencies or online platforms.

Dark web platforms like DreamMarket, shut down in 2019, were major sellers of rhino horn and ivory. Successor marketplaces—Empire, White House, and Rapture—were ultimately shut down by 2021.

Facebook, WeChat, and WhatsApp are some of the most common platforms used by traffickers.

Operation Thunder, conducted from November to December 2024 in 133 countries, is a prime example of combined intelligence with authorities tracking digital footprints on social media. Investigators used keywords and AI tools to detect sellers. This technology is still being refined but shows promising results in detecting illegal rhino horn activity online.

Interpol estimates that only 10–20% of smuggled rhino horn is actually seized.

Seizures October 2023 – September 2025

Vietnam, Shanghai, Thailand, and China: 210 rhino horns of African origin seized.

Hong Kong Customs – July 11, 2025: 2.7 kg of rhino horns (~$1 million) hidden in ceramic ornaments from Spain.

Hong Kong Customs – Sept 27, 2025: 2 kg of rhino horns (~$0.8 million) from France, also disguised as ceramic ornaments.

Thai Customs – Sept 7, 2025: Five rhino horns (6.86 kg, ~$200,000) seized from a Vietnamese man traveling from Luanda, Angola, via Addis Ababa to Bangkok; final destination Vientiane, Laos.

South Africa: 233–250 rhino horns seized nationwide, including over 50 at Cape Town International Airport.

To put that in perspective: between October 2023 to September 2025, authorities seized 215 rhino horns in Vietnam, Shanghai, Thailand, and China—all of African origin. In the same period, South Africa reported the seizure of 233 to 250 horns, including over 50 horns at Cape Town International Airport alone. Interpol estimates that only 10–20% of smuggled rhino horn is actually seized.

Theft of Rhino Horn Stockpiles in South Africa

During the same period:

Limpopo: 200 kg stolen from a private game reserve.

Durban (Ezemvelo Regional Parks): 200 kg stolen from a storage facility.

Mpumalanga: Several hundred kilograms stolen from a secure provincial facility awaiting future legal use.

Eastern Cape: 100 kg stolen from a secure game reserve facility.

That's at least a staggering 1,000 kg of rhino horn stolen from stockpiles that has been reported. The demand for rhino horn continues to soar. Rhinos endure severe biological consequences from dehorning, including reduced ranges and altered behaviors. The trade—whether from dehorned stockpiles or live rhinos slaughtered by poachers—is raging, a monstrous human-driven threat to an iconic species.

Our rhinos are being stolen, killed, and trafficked for so-called traditional Chinese medicines.

So why aren’t we holding the perpetrators accountable?