![]() ![]() With more than two billion users worldwide as of 2020, YouTube ® is the largest global online video website and is thus considered to be one of the most influential social networking platforms. Investigating how social media platforms influence public perception is vital to understanding attitudes towards exotic animal content and recognise the impact these platforms have in promoting consumer demand and enabling the globalisation of the market. Overall, social media platforms permit public accessibility to unregulated exotic animal content, influencing user perceptions and facilitating accessibility to the exotic pet trade like never before. Currently, a considerable amount of published content remains unregulated due to poorly established policy guidelines and limited enforcement disproportionate to the volume of data uploaded. Social media platforms have become a dominant source for news, entertainment and information, therefore understanding factors that generate appeal for these sites is important to enable content regulation. Social media has changed how society access, consume and share information, wherein exposure to content is individually tailored to enhance user experience. Therefore, modern drivers and routes of the exotic pet trade must be identified to facilitate better regulation and preserve wild populations of these species.Ĭonsumer interaction with the exotic pet trade has drastically changed in association with widespread access to the internet, wherein social media has been identified as an important driver of the trade through significantly influencing public perception. Although international wildlife trade regulations are in place through the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), much of the trade still operates illegally. The exotic pet trade encompasses the global exploitation of exotic animals including popular mammalian species such as primates and carnivores (including Felidae) commonly sourced from wild populations, thus imposing a significant threat to species biodiversity, animal welfare and public health. Exotic pets are animals without an extensive history of domestication or life in captivity that are not traditionally viewed as companion animals. Unsustainable trade in wildlife is an important challenge to species biodiversity, where live animals are trafficked for pets amongst other purposes. ![]() These findings highlight the urgency for effective YouTube ® policy changes and content management to promote public education and conservation awareness, whilst extinguishing false legitimisation and demand for the exotic pet trade. Additionally, although a negative trend in median text sentiment was observed in 2015 for primates, an otherwise consistent positive median text and emoji sentiment score through time across all IUCN Red List categories was revealed in response to both exotic wild cat and primate videos, further implying the societal normalisation and acceptance of exotic pets. ![]() Negative interactions between wild cats and primates with other species were found to be associated with both text and emoji median sentiment reduction, however were still accompanied by a median emoji sentiment above zero. To investigate how such content is perceived by the global community, mixed model sentiment analysis techniques were employed to explore variations in attitudes expressed through text and emoji usage in public comments associated with 346 popular YouTube ® videos starring exotic wild cats or primates in ‘free handling’ situations. The exploitation of threatened exotic species via social media challenges efforts to regulate the exotic pet trade and consequently threatens species conservation. ![]()
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