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The videos roll through TikTok in 30-second flashes.Migrants trek in camouflage through dry desert terrain. Dune buggies roar up to the United States-Mexico border barrier. Families with young children pass through gaps in the wall. Helicopters, planes, yachts, tunnels, and Jet Skis stand by for potential customers.Laced with emojis, the videos posted by smugglers offer a simple promise: If you don’t have a visa in the U.S., trust us. We’ll get you over safely. Illustration of migrants climbing over a border barrier with emojis overlayed on the scene, based on hundreds of TikTok videos reviewed by the AP. [Art: Peter Hamlin/AP Illustration] At a time when legal pathways to the U.S. have been slashed and criminal groups are raking in money from migrant smuggling, social media apps like TikTok have become an essential tool for smugglers and migrants alike. The videostaken to cartoonish extremesoffer a rare look inside a long elusive industry and the narratives used by trafficking networks to fuel migration north.“With God’s help, we’re going to continue working to fulfill the dreams of foreigners. Safe travels without robbing our people,” wrote one enterprising smuggler.As President Donald Trump begins to ramp up a crackdown at the border and migration levels to the U.S. dip, smugglers say new technologies allow networks to be more agile in the face of challenges, and expand their reach to new customersa far cry from the old days when each village had its trusted smuggler.“In this line of work, you have to switch tactics,” said a woman named Soary, part of a smuggling network bringing migrants from Ciudad Juarez to El Paso, Texas, who spoke to the Associated Press on the condition that her last name would not be shared out of concern that authorities would track her down. “TikTok goes all over the world.”Soary, 24, began working in smuggling when she was 19, living in El Paso, where she was approached by a friend about a job. She would use her truck to pick up migrants who had recently jumped the border. Despite the risks involved with working with trafficking organizations, she said it earned her more as a single mother than her previous job putting in hair extensions. Depiction of migrants with faces covered by emojis giving testimony that they arrived safely to the U.S. as part of the smugglers social media campaign to build their brand of trust, based on hundreds of TikTok videos reviewed by the AP. [Art: Peter Hamlin/AP Illustration] As she gained more contacts on both sides of the border, she began connecting people from across the Americas with a network of smugglers to sneak them across borders and eventually into the U.S.Like many smugglers, she would take videos of migrants speaking to the camera after crossing the border to send over WhatsApp as evidence to loved ones that her clients had gotten to their destination safely. Now she posts those clips to TikTok.TikTok says the platform strictly prohibits human smuggling and reports such content to law enforcement.The use of social media to facilitate migration took off around 2017 and 2018, when activists built massive WhatsApp groups to coordinate the first major migrant caravans traveling from Central America to the U.S., according to Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, a professor at George Mason University focused on the migrant smuggling industry.Later, smugglers began to infiltrate those chats and use the choice social media app of the day, expanding to Facebook and Instagram.Migrants, too, began to document their often perilous voyages north, posting videos trekking through the jungles of the Darien Gap dividing Colombia and Panama, and after being released by extorting cartels.A 2023 study by the United Nations reported that 64% of the migrants they interviewed had access to a smart phone and the internet during their migration to the U.S.Around the time of the study’s release, as use of the app began to soar, that Correa-Cabrera said she began to see smuggling ads skyrocket on TikTok.“It’s a marketing strategy,” Correa-Cabrera said. “Everyone was on TikTok, particularly after the pandemic, and then it began to multiply.”Last year, Soary, the smuggler, said she began to publish videos of migrants and families in the U.S. with their faces covered and photos of the U.S.-Mexico border with messages like: “We’ll pass you through Ciudad Ju�rez, no matter where you are. Fence jumping, treks, and by tunnel. Adults, children, and the elderly.”Hundreds of videos examined by the AP feature thick wads of cash, people crossing through the border fence by night, helicopters and airplanes supposedly used by coyotes, smugglers cutting open cacti in the desert for migrants to drink from and even crops of lettuce with text reading “The American fields are ready!”The videos are often layered over heavy northern Mexican music with lyrics waxing romantically about being traffickers. Videos are published by accounts with names alluding to “safe crossing,” “USA destinations,” “fulfilling dreams,” or “polleros,” as smugglers are often called.Narratives shift based on the political environment and immigration policies in the U.S. During theBiden administration, posts would advertise getting migrants access to asylum applications through the administration’s CBP One app, which Trump ended.Amid Trump’s crackdown, posts have shifted to dispelling fears that migrants will be captured, promising American authorities have been paid off. Smugglers openly taunt U.S. authorities: one shows himself smoking what appears to be marijuana right in front of the border wall; another even takes a jab at Trump, referring to the president as a “high-strung gringo.”Comments are dotted with emojis of flags and baby chickens, a symbol meaning migrant among smugglers, and other users asking for prices and more information.Cristina, who migrated because she struggled make ends meet in the Mexican state of Zacatecas, was among those scrolling in December after the person she had hired to smuggle her to the U.S. abandoned her and her partner in Ciudad Ju�rez.“In a moment of desperation, I started searching on TikTok and, well, with the algorithm videos began to pop up,” she said. “It took me a half an hour” to find a smuggler.After connecting, smugglers and migrants often negotiate on encrypted apps like WhatsApp and Telegram, doing a careful dance to gain each other’s trust. Cristina, now living in Phoenix, said she decided to trust Soary because she was a woman and posted videos of families, something the smuggler admitted was a tactic to gain migrants’ trust.Smugglers, migrants and authorities warn that such videos have been used to scam migrants or lure them into traps at a time when cartels are increasingly using kidnapping and extortion as a means to rake in more money.One smuggler, who asked to only be identified by his TikTok name “The Corporation” due to fear of authorities tracking him down, said other accounts would steal his migrant smuggling network’s videos of customers saying to camera they arrived safely in the U.S.“And there’s not much we can do legally. I mean, it’s not like we can report them,” he said with a laugh.In other cases, migrants say that they were forced by traffickers to take the videos even if they haven’t arrived safely to their destinations.The illicit advertisements have fueled concern among international authorities like the U.N.’s International Organization for Migration, which warned in a report about the use of the technology that “networks are becoming increasingly sophisticated and evasive, thus challenging government authorities to address new, non-traditional forms of this crime.”In February, a Mexican prosecutor also confirmed to the AP that they were investigating a network of accounts advertising crossings through a tunnel running under the border fence between Ciudad Juarez and El Paso. But investigators would not provide more details.In the meantime, hundreds of accounts post videos of trucks crossing border, of stacks of cash and migrants, faces covered with emojis, promising they made it safely across the border.“We’re continuing to cross and we’re not scared,” one wrote. Illustrations are based on hundreds of videos posted on TikTok examined by the AP that advertise travel to the U.S. to migrants. Videos are often laced with emojis, make bold promises of success and promise safe travel. Megan Janetsky, Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
When Federal Reserve officials last met in late January, things looked pretty good: Hiring was solid. The economy had just grown at a solid pace in last year’s final quarter. And inflation, while stubborn, had fallen sharply from its peak more than two years ago.What a difference seven weeks makes.As the Fed prepares to meet Tuesday and Wednesday, the central bank and its chair, Jerome Powell, are potentially headed to a much tougher spot. Inflation improved last month but is still high and tariffs could push it higher. At the same time, ongoing tariff threats as well as sharp cuts to government spending and jobs have tanked consumer and business confidence, which could weigh on the economy and even push up unemployment.The toxic combination of still-high inflation and a weak or stagnant economy is often referred to as “stagflation,” a term that haunts central bankers. It is what bedeviled the United States in the 1970s, when even deep recessions didn’t kill inflation.Stagflation, should it emerge, is hard for the Fed because typically policymakers would lift ratesor keep them highto combat inflation. Yet if unemployment also rises, the Fed would usually cut rates to reduce borrowing costs and lift growth.It’s not yet clear the economy will sink into stagflation. For now, like businesses and consumers, the Fed is grappling with a huge amount of uncertainty surrounding the economic outlook. But even a mild versionwith the unemployment rising from its current low level of 4.1%, while inflation stayed stuck above the Fed’s 2% targetwould pose a challenge for the central bank.“That’s the tangled web they’re in,” said Esther George, former president of the Federal Reserve’s Kansas City branch. “You have inflation stickiness on the one hand. At the same time, you’re trying to look at what impact could this have on the job market, if growth begins to pull back. So it is a tough scenario for them for sure.”Fed officials will almost certainly keep their key rate unchanged at their meeting this week. Once the meeting concludes Wednesday, they will release their latest quarterly economic projections, which will likely show they expect to cut their rate twice this yearthe same as they projected in December.The Fed implemented three cuts last year and then signaled at the January meeting that they were largely on pause until the economic outlook becomes clearer.Wall Street investors expect three rate reductions this year, in June, September, and December, according to futures prices tracked by CME Fedwatch, in part because they worry an economic slowdown will force more reductions.One development likely to unnerve Fed officials is the sharp jump in inflation expectations this month in the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment survey. It showed the biggest increase in long-term inflation expectations since 1993.Such expectationswhich basically measure whether Americans are worried inflation will get worseare important because they can become self-fulfilling. If businesses and consumers expect higher costs, they may take steps that push up inflation, like demanding higher wages, which in turn can force companies to raise prices to offset higher labor costs.Some economists caution that the University of Michigan’s survey is preliminary and for now based on only about 400 responses. (The final version to be released later this month typically includes about 800.) And financial market measures of inflation expectations, based on bond prices, have actually declined in recent weeks.The most recent inflation readings have been mixed. The consumer price index dropped last week for the first time in five months to 2.8% from 3%, an encouraging change. But the Fed’s preferred price gauge, to be released later this month, is likely to be unchanged.The jump in inflation expectations is also a problem for the Fed because officials, including Powell, have said they are willing to let inflation gradually return to their 2% target in 2027, because expectations have generally been low. If other measures show inflation worries rising, the Fed could come under more pressure to get inflation down more quickly.“I do worry when I see consumer expectations moving in the opposite direction,” George said. “I think you just have to keep an eye on that.”The last time President Donald Trump imposed tariffsin 2018 and 2019overall inflation didn’t rise by much, in part because they weren’t nearly as broad as what he is currently proposing and some duties, such as those on steel and aluminum, were watered down with loopholes. Now that Americans have lived through a painful inflationary episode, they are likely to be more skittish about rising prices.Powell referred such concerns in remarks earlier this month. He said tariffs could just have a one-time impact on prices without causing ongoing inflation. But that could change “if it turns into a series” of tariff hikes, he said March 7, or “if the increases are larger, that would matter.”“What really does matter is what is happening with long-term inflation expectations,” Powell added.A week after his comments, those expectations shot higher in the University of Michigan survey.Christopher Rugaber, AP Economics Writer
Category:
E-Commerce
In what could be one of the most high-profile fintech public offerings this year, Swedish Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) giant Klarna has filed paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) relating to an initial proposed public offering. Heres what you need to know about Klarnas IPO. Whats happened? On March 14, Klarna Group plc announced that it had filed paperwork with the SEC relating to a proposed initial public offering of its ordinary shares. The paperwork is known as a registration statement on Form F-1 and is the latest sign that Klarnas IPO is coming sooner rather than later. It includes a preliminary prospectus that offers a detailed look into the company’s financial performance and potential risk factors. What is Klarna? Klarna is a fintech company based in Sweden. Though it has its fingers in several aspects of fintech, the company is best known for its Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) services. BNPL allows consumers to purchase an item today but pay for it in installmentsusually four spread over a number of months. Klarna says it has approximately 93 million active users and counts 675,000 merchants as partners across 26 countries as of 2024. The company says that in that same year, it helped facilitate $105 billion of gross merchandise volume. Klarna was originally founded as Kreditor in 2005, making the company 20 years old this year. Kreditor changed its name to Klarna in 2010. Interestingly, in its F-1 filing with the SEC, Klarna revealed it had remained a profitable company for the first 14 years of its existence. But then, it decided to expand into the U.S. in 2019. In 2019, we strategically decided to expand our successful operating model into additional geographies, with a particular focus on the United States, and in the following three years expanded into 12 additional markets, the company wrote. While our expansion in the United States has contributed to an increase in our GMV, it has also led to net losses in recent periods. In 2023, our operating loss started to decline and we began generating positive Transaction margin dollars in the United States, while continuing to grow our GMV and the number of active Klarna consumers and merchants worldwide. When is Klarnas IPO date? Klarna has not set an IPO date yet. There are still several steps it needs to go through before it can hold its actual IPO. The company had previously filed IPO paperwork confidentially with the SEC in November. What is Klarnas stock ticker? That is one of the few firm details we do know about Klarnas future IPO. Klarna stock will trade under the ticker KLAR. What stock exchange will Klarna trade on? Klarna intends to trade its shares on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). How much will Klarna seek to raise in its IPO? Klarna Hasnt officially announced that yet. However, Bloomberg reports that the Swedish company is seeking to raise at least $1 billion USD. What is Klarnas valuation? If the company raises around $1 billion in its IPO, Bloomberg says the companys valuation could be more than $15 billion.
Category:
E-Commerce
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