Abortion pill-related social media posts blocked, hidden by Meta

Social media posts related to obtaining abortion pills were blocked and hidden on the platforms Instagram and Facebook, the New York Times reported.

Specifically, two abortion pill providers’ posts were recently blurred, blocked or removed on the platforms, the Times said, and several abortion pill providers’ accounts were suspended on Instagram. They were later restored.

Providers were hidden from appearing in search and recommendations as well,.

The issues on the Meta-owned platforms were especially noticeable in the days immediately following President Donald Trump’s inauguration, according to the providers, the Times said, after issues had ramped up during the last two weeks.

Providers said that content from their accounts — or in some cases, their entire accounts — were no longer visible on Instagram, according to the Times.

Aid Access, one of the largest abortion pill providers in the country, said some of its posts have faced removal on Facebook and been blurred on Instagram since November, the Times said. It hasn’t had access to its Facebook account since then, and its Instagram account was suspended last week before being restored.

Similarly, other abortion pill providers’ Instagram accounts like Women Help Women and Just the Pill were suspended in recent days, according to the Times. Both were restored Thursday.

On Thursday, Meta confirmed some account suspensions and the blurring of posts, and after the Times asked about the actions, the company restored some of the accounts and posts.

Meta said the moderation of abortion-focused accounts was not related to its recent vow to loosen speech policies and stop using third-party fact checkers, announced by chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, which caused concern among misinformation researchers,.

However, the timing of these incidents raised questions about whether speech restrictions were truly being loosened.

Instead, a Meta spokesperson attributed the abortion pill-related incidents to rules that prohibit the sale of pharmaceutical drugs on its platforms without proper certification.

This is not the first time abortion providers’ posts have been suppressed by Meta, as a similar incident happened in June 2022, NPR reported, follow the Supreme Court decision that overruled Roe v. Wade.

Lisa Femia, a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told the Times that since the Supreme Court decision, there’s been a “massive uptick” in the removal of social media content related to reproductive health care.

“This is an ongoing, increasing problem and a real threat to people receiving vital information and guidance about health care online,” Femia said.