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I just want to buy some secondhand clothes, blud
Everyone knows that Gen Z loves an upsell. Any thrifted items, secondhand seasonal wear, or funky footwear can find a good home… for the right price and on a decent platform, of course.
This explains the rise (and rise) of Vinted, the Lithuanian-based peer-to-peer marketplace that allows users to buy, sell, and swap their personal belongings. Last year, the company announced it had generated €1.1 billion EU in annual revenue, with plans to expand into North American markets in the coming years. It is a dominant force in Europe, particularly in London and Paris, and shows no signs of slowing.
Yet, despite all the upbeat numbers, Vinted has recently been hit with viral allegations of underground child trafficking. Customers have been posting screenshots of misleading item listings, each one containing a description that allegedly contains hidden references to children. They often include information on age, height, weight, and ethnicity, deliberately presented as a vague series of numbers that aren’t immediately obvious.
These posts have gone viral on both TikTok and Instagram, prompting serious responses from major institutions, including French and German police. Vinted itself says it also launched an investigation, saying that it found ‘no credible cases linked to child trafficking activity.’
‘The rumours are based on a misunderstanding of how our platform works,’ the company said. It warned that some listings appear to have been altered or falsified to add fuel to the fire surrounding the allegations. They are being deleted as they appear, Vinted says. ‘The screenshots online may indicate trolling, dubious advertisements, incorrectly selected categories, provocation or misuse of the platform,’ it added.
Now, all the horrifying ramifications of such allegations aside, it’s important to take these videos and claims with a massive pinch of salt.
Vinted is an extremely popular platform and a serious market force, so much so that it wouldn’t be a huge surprise to learn that this was an attempt at harming its brand value. We’ve previously mentioned on our sister newsletter, The Gen Zer, that stealth marketing is universally in force across popular social media platforms to encourage and change the narrative around any current topic. We’re not saying this is definitely what’s happened here, but it isn’t impossible.
False claims and sensationalised narratives take away from the very real, actual victims of child trafficking and abuse that have nothing to do with Vinted or any online retail platform. Wayfair, a furniture-selling website, was hit with similar conspiracy theories in 2020 by the QAnon community, a far-right online group. The accusations were baseless, and Wayfair had to publicly push against the backlash it received online. Critics argue that these kinds of conspiracies are a tactic to push right-wing ideas onto new people and to boost conservatism among young people, as they tend to drum up a significant amount of engagement.
It’s crucial not to become paranoid. We currently have no real, concrete evidence of anything actually happening, and until we do, we shouldn’t let hysteria get the better of us. It’s worth a reminder too that you’re far more likely to be scammed, run into delivery issues, or get into a scrap with Vinted’s customer service representatives than you are to be involved in any trafficking scandal. Keep your wits about you, obviously. Just don’t let the hysteria stop you from selling some shoes or raising a bit of cash. Failing that, maybe try Depop instead?
