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One of the largest US providers of abortion pills said censorship of its posts on Meta platforms had increased since Donald Trump was elected.
Last week, a number of Instagram posts by Aid Access, which provides medication abortion by mail to all 50 states, appeared blurred or blacked out to users.
One of the Instagram posts blocked by Meta included tips for feeling “safe, comfortable, and supported” when having an at-home abortion.
After media outlets contacted Meta on Thursday, the Aid Access account was restored along with some of the posts.
Other organisations that provide online abortion pills in the US (JustThePill, Mayday Health, Hey Jane and Women Help Women) also reported their accounts had been recently suspended or that posts had been blocked on their accounts.
A Meta spokesperson told Tortoise it prohibits the sale of pharmaceutical drugs on its platforms “without proper certification” but conceded some of the moderation had been “overenforcement”.
Meta also said the posts and accounts being blocked were not the result of any recent policy or enforcement changes and were unrelated to its recent updates to content moderation.
“We’ve been quite clear in recent weeks that we want to allow more speech and reduce enforcement mistakes – and we’re committed to doing that,” the spokesperson said.
Dr Rebecca Gomperts, director of Aid Access, said online censorship of abortion services and information about abortion pills “has been ongoing for more than 10 years” but that since the election of Trump there has been an increase in censorship.
“Meta continues to block scientific-backed information about the safety of abortion pills and how women can get them and use themselves,” Gomperts said.
In June 2022, following the overturning of Roe v Wade, posts about accessing abortion pills by mail led to accounts being suspended, while searches for “abortion” or “abortion pills” were restricted behind sensitivity screens. At the time Meta blamed the over-enforcement on a “technical bug”.
Within days of Trump’s inauguration, attended by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, a site launched by the Biden administration in 2022 (Reproductiverights.gov) to provide reproductive healthcare advice was taken down.
On Friday, in his first public address as vice president, JD Vance told thousands of anti-abortion protesters in Washington DC that Trump will be “the most pro-family, most pro-life American president of our lifetimes”.
