The impact of social media’s influence on worldwide issues like animal trafficking and the exotic pet trade have been studied and in the last few years, have been spotlighted multiple times.  Direct correlations between viral videos of specific animals and influxes in the demand for those animals as pets, and subsequently measurable influxes in the poaching and trafficking of those animals have been repeatedly documented.  This is not a theory or an opinion.  It’s a proven fact.  One so accepted by the conservation industry that institutes like the University of Helsinki have devoted themselves to developing artificially intelligent software which utilizes image recognition and natural language processing algorithms to try and monitor and reduce the illegal wildlife trade on social media. 

And to be explicitly clear those fueling the illegal and exotic animal trade are divided evenly between those who poach and traffic the animals, and those who buy and keep them as pets