Facebook Collaborates With the Police to Prosecute Abortion Seekers



Since abortion is forbidden throughout the nation with the reversal of Roe v. Wade, the police started to use social media to track people’s abortion-related communications. 

Recent news showed that chats in social media could be evidence during prosecution.

According to Mashable, this spring, Jessica Burgess and her daughter will stand trial in Nebraska for performing an illegal abortion, with Meta, Facebook's parent company, providing crucial evidence. Burgess allegedly assisted her daughter in locating and taking abortion pills. TechCrunch reported that Facebook provided chat logs to the officers. Meta stated that they practiced the "valid legal warrants from local law enforcement".


Facebook is not the only company sharing data.

Insider asserted that many online pharmacies which sell abortion drugs shared sensitive information with third-party platforms such as Google. The information includes users’ addresses, personal information, and search data. The correlation between social media and various online stores enables the government to track people’s more real-life activities such as purchasing beyond simply accessing their online chatting.  


Meta’s spokesperson said that  ‘we assess whether a request is consistent with internationally recognized standards on human rights. When we do comply, we only produce information that is narrowly tailored to that request.’ In short, Meta defended itself by saying that it provided users’ information based on laws and only provided the part of the information that was connected with specific issues. However, it is still debatable when defining the appropriate extent of information sharing. What kind of things are connected? What ‘internationally recognized standards’ will they use when assessing whether to respond to the request? 


"Certainly, we expect that social media companies are gonna cooperate with law enforcement when they make legitimate information requests, we need them to do that," commented Eric Goldman, a law professor at Santa Clara University School, ‘But we also know that social media isn't likely to stand up to illegitimate law enforcement requests.’ When information in social media helps track abominable criminals, it ensures social safety. But when the definition of the crime itself is still clear enough, for example in the case of abortion, the public will be angry towards the government’s overreaching and distrust social media platforms.


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