Meta Suspended Pill Provider Accounts, Removed

Some companies that sell abortion pills online had accounts suspended on Meta’s Instagram Social Media platform and posts suppressed on Instagram as well as on Meta’s Facebook.

according to The New York Times said companies including access to aid, Just the Pill, Women Helping Women, and Hye Jin were part of what Meta referred to as “over-editing” that included having the account suspended, removed, or blocked.

Meta told The Times she restored some accounts this week. One abortion pill provider said its accounts had been affected since November, the Times reported. Providers also told the paper that over-editing has affected their accounts and posts have spiked over the last two weeks.

Meta told The Times that the issue was about its policies on drug providers’ content. When requested for comment by CNET, Meta spokesperson Erin Logan reiterated this.

“We prohibit the sale of pharmaceutical medicines on our platforms without proper certification, and our policies in this area have not changed,” she said. “These groups face a variety of issues—some due to mis-enforcement, as well as over-enforcement. But we have been crystal clear in recent weeks that we want to allow more speech and reduce enforcement errors—and we are committed to doing so.”

Meta also said that the blurring of posts was a technical issue involving overlapping content from Facebook to Instagram, and that flagged posts would be restored. The company said some of the posts did not violate Facebook policies.

The timing of the accounts and posts suffering comes as the company changed its strategy and removed fact checks on Facebook in… In favor of community feedback. It’s too closely Align itself With new President Donald Trump. But Meta says the moderation of accounts belonging to abortion pill providers is not related to Facebook’s speech policy changes or other identifying changes.

Trump, meanwhile, has railed against social media companies, and he Issued An executive order Tuesday aimed at so-called government censorship of social platforms. The president and others on the right have accused the Biden administration of suppressing speech on such platforms. In June, however, The US Supreme Court ruled For the Biden administration in a case alleging overreach in its communications with social media companies. like male By NPR Justice Amy Coney Barrett said in her opinion for the court’s majority that the parties suing the government had presented no evidence to support their claims that the government pressured social media companies to restrict their speech.

Access Aid, one of the largest abortion pill providers in the United States, has more than 53,000 followers on Instagram and more than 5,000 on Facebook, the Times noted. On Instagram mail“We know some of our posts are still unclear or missing, and we’re working hard to fix that,” the company said.