Instagram DELETES and Facebook RESTRICTS posts about abortion pills as parent company Meta appears to fall in line with SCOTUS ruling - but Google says it would refuse to give cops abortion data
- Instagram is deleting and restricting posts shared with the hashtags 'abortion pills' and 'mifepristone'
- Both hashtags now display a warning that some posts may not follow Instagram’s Community Guidelines
- Facebook is deleting statuses that say 'Abortion pills can be mailed'
- DailyMail.com posted the status and it was removed in less than a minute
The restrictions come just days after the Supreme Court ruled to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade case, which now means states have the power ban abortions.
As first reported on by NBC, Instagram has deleted and limited at least two hashtags: ‘abortion pills’ and ‘mifepristone.’
Facebook is removing posts and even temporarily blocking users from their accounts for saying abortion pills can be mailed, according to Motherboard.
DailyMail.com conducted its own investigation into Facebook and posted ‘abortion pills can be mailed’ as a status.
In less than one minute, a notification appeared saying the post goes against the platform’s Community Standards on drugs.
DailyMail.com has contacted Meta for comment and has yet to receive a response.
Google, on the other hand, appears to be on the opposing team.
Google Chief Privacy Officer Keith Enright said in response to a question from CTech over the weekend that they company will not comply with law enforcement requests from states for abortion data, while Instagram has been found to restrict two hashtags and delete posts related to abortion services.
- Instagram has deleted and limited at least two hashtags: ‘abortion pills’ and ‘mifepristone'
NBC notes that it is not clear to when Instagram began limiting the two hashtags and nor does it make clear to what guidelines have been violated.
You can see some of the images may have been deleted while scrolling through the two hashtags.
For instance, one of the first images is timestamped for June 7, 2022 and just three posts after shows an image that was shared on September 15, 2020.
DailyMail.com conducted its own investigation into Facebook and posted ‘abortion pills can be mailed’ as a status
The huge time gap makes it clear that posts have been deleted from the hashtag.
Facebook notes its standards on drugs prohibits the buying and selling of medical and non-medical drugs, which it claims is why it quickly removed the post 'abortion pills can be mailed.'
However, putting ‘painkillers can be mailed’ did not trigger a warning from the site and was allowed to stay on the platform.
Andy Stone, Meta’s communication director, shared on Twitter that both Instagram and Facebook do not allow ‘content that attempts to buy, sell, trade, gift, request or donate pharmaceuticals is not allowed.
‘Content that discusses the affordability and accessibility of prescription medication is allowed. We’ve discovered some instances of incorrect enforcement and are correcting these.’
However, this is an updated policy that was just released today – June 27.
On Friday, the US Supreme Court held in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization that the Constitution does not confer a right to an abortion.
The 6-3 ruling authored by Justice Samuel Alito upended nearly 50 years of precedent and sparked massive protests nationwide.
In the post-Roe world, eighteen states already banned abortion and more may follow suit.
The 26 states where abortion will likely become illegal now Supreme Court has overturned Roe vs Wade
- The 26 states where abortion will likely become illegal if SCOTUS overturns Roe vs Wade after leaked draft opinion showed a majority of justices supported the move
According to the pro-reproductive rights group The Guttmacher Institute, there are 26 states that will likely make abortions illegal now that the Supreme Court has overturned the landmark 1973 ruling.
18 have existing abortion bans that have previously been ruled unconstitutional, four have time limit bans and four are likely to pass laws once Roe v Wade is overturned, the organization found.
The 18 states that have near-total bans on abortion already on the books are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
In addition, Georgia, Iowa, Ohio, and South Carolina all have laws that ban abortions after the six-week mark.
Florida, Indiana, Montana and Nebraska, are likely to pass bills when Roe v Wade is overturned, the Guttmacher Institute said.
Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Texas, West Virginia and Wisconsin's bans all have pre-Roe v Wade laws that became unenforceable after the Supreme Court's 1973 decision - that would kick into effect now the federal legal precedent established in Roe has been overturned.
Arkansas, Oklahoma, Mississippi and Texas have further bans that will come into effect if the law was overturned. These were passed post-Roe v Wade.
They're joined by Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah and Wyoming, in passing such laws.
The states that will limit abortions based on the length of time a patient has been pregnant are Arkansas, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, North Dakota and Ohio.
There are four states that have laws that state abortion is not a constitutionally protected right: Alabama, Louisiana, Texas and West Virginia.
After the Supreme Court draft was leaked, over 40 members of Congress sent a letter to CEO Sundar Pichai asking Google to limit its location gathering efforts to prevent it from being used by anti-abortion prosecutors in the event that Roe was overturned.
'If abortion is made illegal by the far-right Supreme Court and Republican lawmakers, it is inevitable that right-wing prosecutors will obtain legal warrants to hunt down, prosecute and jail women for obtaining critical reproductive health care,' the letter states.
Enright went on to detail the ways in which it is trying to protect user privacy with tools that allow people to auto-delete certain information and so forth.
'We are committed to keeping users safe all over the world when they use our products and services, and legal developments reinforce our commitment to do that.'
'We will continue to examine how our products work, we will continue improving them to make them the safest, most private, most secure options in the marketplace and will continue engaging with legislators and policy makers with lawmakers all over the world to ensure our products can’t be abused.'
The digital rights nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation referred Daily Mail to a blog post detailing a wide range of things that companies can do to protect users in light of the SCOTUS abortion ruling.
'In a post-Roe world, service providers can expect a raft of subpoenas and warrants seeking user data that could be employed to prosecute abortion seekers, providers, and helpers.
'If your product or service might be used to target people seeking, offering, or facilitating abortion access, now is the time to minimize the harm that can be done.'
Source:https://www.dailymail.co.uk/science...equest-police-tech-companies-wont-answer.html
