USA – Abortion Snitching Is Already Sending People to Jail

In places where abortion is banned, women must rely even more on social and familial networks. But with greater reliance, comes greater risk.

8/19/2023
by MORGAN CARMEN

Last month, Celeste Burgess was sentenced to 90 days in prison because she took abortion pills when she was 17 years old. Celeste was charged with removing, concealing or abandoning a human body; concealing the death of another; and false reporting, after burying her miscarriage with the help of her mother, Jessica.

The story of Celeste and her mother—who helped her get the pills and will be sentenced next month—went national. Most media attention centered on the local police’s access to Facebook messages between the two, and for good reason: Companies like Meta amass intimate information—including but not limited to messages, location data, browsing patterns, phone numbers and online searches—that may be accessed easily by law enforcement. This case was seen as a harbinger of intimate privacy violations to come.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2023/08/19/celeste-burgess-abortion-snitching-privacy-police-illegal/


How Meta Created a Wild West for Abortion Misinformation

New cases from Meta’s Oversight Board highlight Meta’s haphazard approach to reproductive health.

BY JENNIFER NEDA JOHN
JULY 31, 2023

In March, a member of an anti-abortion Facebook group shared a post describing what it claimed was “pro-abortion logic”: “We don’t want you to be poor, starved or unwanted. So we’ll just kill you instead.”

That same month, another Facebook user shared a link to a news article covering a South Carolina bill that would have criminalized abortion as homicide, thus making it eligible for the death penalty. In the caption, the user criticized lawmakers’ logic that “it’s wrong to kill so we are going to kill you.” On Instagram, another post struck the same tone, criticizing the idea of being “so pro-life” that “we’ll kill you dead if you get an abortion.”

Continued: https://slate.com/technology/2023/07/abortion-misinformation-meta-oversight-board.html


Facebook and Google are handing over user data to help police prosecute abortion seekers

KATHERINE TANGALAKIS-LIPPERT
MAR 5, 2023

As abortion bans across the nation are implemented and enforced, law enforcement is turning to social media platforms to build cases to prosecute women seeking abortions or abortion-inducing medication – and online platforms like Google and Facebook are helping.

This spring, a woman named Jessica Burgess and her daughter will stand trial in Nebraska for performing an illegal abortion — with a key piece of evidence provided by Meta, the parent company of Facebook. Burgess allegedly helped her daughter find and take pills that would induce an abortion. The teenage Burgess also faces charges for allegedly illegally disposing of the fetus' remains.

Continued: https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/facebook-and-google-are-handing-over-user-data-to-help-police-prosecute-abortion-seekers/articleshow/98423158.cms


Nebraska – Facebook gave police their private data. Now, this duo face abortion charges

Experts say it underscores the importance of encryption and minimizing the amount of user data tech companies can store
Johana Bhuiyan
Wed 10 Aug 2022

In the wake of the supreme court’s upheaval of Roe v Wade, tech workers and privacy advocates expressed concerns about how the user data tech companies stored could be used against people seeking abortions.

When a Facebook staffer posed the dilemma to the chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, asking how the platform would protect the user data of individuals seeking abortion care, Zuckerberg said the company’s ongoing push to encrypt messaging would help protect people from “bad behavior or over-broad requests for information”.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/10/facebook-user-data-abortion-nebraska-police


Nebraska woman charged with helping daughter have abortion

Investigators uncovered Facebook messages in which the two allegedly discussed using medication to induce an abortion.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Aug 9, 2022

OMAHA, Nebraska — A Nebraska woman has been charged with helping her teenage daughter end her pregnancy at about 24 weeks after investigators uncovered Facebook messages in which the two discussed using medication to induce an abortion and plans to burn the fetus afterward.

The prosecutor handling the case said it’s the first time he has charged anyone for illegally performing an abortion after 20 weeks, a restriction that was passed in 2010. Before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, states weren’t allowed to enforce abortion bans until the point at which a fetus is considered viable outside the womb, at roughly 24 weeks.

Continued: https://www.politico.com/news/2022/08/09/nebraska-woman-charged-with-helping-daughter-have-abortion-00050763


Doctors worry that online misinformation will push abortion-seekers toward ineffective, dangerous methods

By Naomi Thomas, CNN
Wed July 13, 2022

After a US Supreme Court draft decision on Roe v. Wade was leaked in May, Dr. Joshua Trebach noticed a disturbing turn in the online conversation around abortion.

"I started seeing things on social media, things like TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, people saying 'oh, if Roe v. Wade does get overturned, here are some secret, sneaky ways that you can drink some tea and have an abortion,' " Trebach said.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/13/health/abortion-misinformation-social-media/index.html


Facebook and Anti-Abortion Clinics Are Collecting Highly Sensitive Info on Would-Be Patients

by Grace Oldham and Dhruv Mehrotra
June 15, 2022

Facebook is collecting ultra-sensitive personal data about abortion seekers and enabling anti-abortion organizations to use that data as a tool to target and influence people online, in violation of its own policies and promises.

In the wake of a leaked Supreme Court opinion signaling the likely end of nationwide abortion protections, privacy experts are sounding alarms about all the ways people’s data trails could be used against them if some states criminalize abortion.

https://revealnews.org/article/facebook-data-abortion-crisis-pregnancy-center/


Mark Zuckerberg Let False Anti-Abortion Video Back On Facebook To Mollify GOP: Report

Mary Papenfuss
Mon, October 25, 2021

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg intervened to reinstate a false anti-abortion video to assuage conservative Republican politicians, according to internal company documents Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen provided to Congress that The Financial Times examined.

The incident was reportedly one of several instances of Facebook senior executives countermanding company policy to allow American politicians and celebrities to post whatever they wanted despite pleas from employees to moderate the content, according to the documents.

Continued: https://news.yahoo.com/mark-zuckerberg-let-false-anti-014340442.html


Scotland – Campaign for abortion clinic ‘buffer zones’ hits out at Facebook for blocking petition

A campaign for buffer zones outside abortion clinics has hit out at Facebook, after the social media giant blocked their petition stating it was ‘reported as abusive content.’

By Jolene Campbell
Monday, 19th July 2021

Back Off Scotland, which was started by Edinburgh university students, said it was disappointed the social media platform had suspended supporters accounts when they shared their national petition – branding the move ‘heavy-handed.’

The group has expanded the campaign for buffer zones outside clinics across Scotland, after setting up in Edinburgh in response to harassment of women seeking abortion healthcare at the Chalmers Street clinic.

Continued: https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/people/campaign-for-abortion-clinic-buffer-zones-hits-out-at-facebook-for-blocking-petition-3314028


How Facebook is being used as an anti-abortion organizing tool

How Facebook is being used as an anti-abortion organizing tool
The rise of the “Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn” campaign is just one example of abortion opponents coordinating on the platform

Written by Madelyn Webb
Published 11/12/19

Abortion foes around the country are organizing to pass ordinances and resolutions recognizing municipalities as so-called “Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn.” Though these measures are legally unenforceable, they ceremonially ban abortion in the cities, towns, or counties where they are passed. Initially, these campaigns appeared isolated, but abortion opponents have been using Facebook to develop and amplify this tactic, demonstrating the material consequences of anti-abortion organizing in online spaces.

Continued: https://www.mediamatters.org/facebook/how-facebook-being-used-anti-abortion-organizing-tool