Facebook sparked outrage by cooperating with US authorities investigating an abortion case, fueling fears that the platform will be used to crack down on the procedure.
Outrage erupted after media reports revealed that the social networking giant had turned over messages crucial to a mother being criminally charged with aiding abortion for her daughter.
Advocates had warned of exactly this kind of thing after America’s top court revoked the national right to abortion in late June.
This is because the Advocates believed that big tech companies hold a trove of data on users locations and behavior which could be detrimental if leaked.
Jessica Burgess, 41, was charged in Nebraska with assisting her 17-year-old daughter in terminating a pregnancy.
She faces five charges, one of which is a violation of the 2010 law that only allows abortion up to 20 weeks after conception.
The daughter is facing three charges, one of which is concealing or abandoning a corpse.
However, Facebook owner Meta defended itself on Tuesday, stating that the Nebraska court order “didn’t mention abortion at all,” and that it came before the Supreme Court’s divisive decision in June to overturn Roe verses Wade’s case, the case that conferred the right to abortion in the United States.
“That sentence appears to imply that if the search warrants mentioned abortion, the outcome would be different. But, of course, that is not the case ” stated Logan Koepke, who studies how technology affects issues such as criminal justice.
When queried about handing over the data, the Silicon Valley giant pointed AFP to its policy of complying with government requests when the law requires the company to do so.
Nebraska’s restrictions were adopted years before Roe was overturned. Some 16 states have outright bans or limits in the early weeks of pregnancy in their jurisdictions.
