instagram and facebook have recently blurred, blocked or removed posts from two abortion pill providers. instagram also suspended the accounts of several abortion pill providers and hid providers from appearing in searches and recommendations.
The actions intensified over the past two weeks and were especially noticeable in the past two days, abortion pill suppliers said. The content of their accounts (or, in some cases, their entire accounts) was no longer visible on instagram.
Meta, owner of facebook and instagram, confirmed some account suspensions and blurred posts. The company reinstated some of the accounts and posts on Thursday, after The New York Times asked about the actions.
Meta has been under scrutiny since Mark Zuckerberg, its CEO, announced sweeping changes to the company's speech policies earlier this month. Zuckerberg promised to loosen restrictions on online speech, raising concerns among misinformation researchers and others that the changes could cause a rise in hate speech and have other harmful effects.
Meta said the moderation of abortion-focused stories was not related to the change in speech policies. But the timing of the incidents raised questions about whether the company was actually easing speech restrictions and was another example of its challenges in enforcing content.
A Meta spokesperson attributed some of the recent incidents involving posts and accounts related to abortion pills to rules that prohibit the sale of drugs on their platforms without proper certification. The company also described some of the incidents as “over-application.”
Meta, which had previously removed posts from abortion providers, has saying that it was making changes to its speech policies in part to reduce the number of posts that were mistakenly removed.
“We have been quite clear in recent weeks that we want to allow more speech and reduce law enforcement errors,” Meta said in a statement.
Lisa Femia, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said that since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, “there has been a massive increase in social media platforms removing content related to reproductive health care and specifically abortion pills. “This is an ongoing and growing problem and a real threat to people receiving vital healthcare information and guidance online.”
Aid Access, one of the largest providers of abortion pills in the United States, said some posts have been deleted on its facebook account and blurred on its instagram account since November, with more posts blurred in recent days. The abortion pill service said it has been locked out of its facebook account since November and its instagram account was suspended last week, although it has since been restored.
The instagram accounts of other abortion pill providers, including Women Help Women and Just the Pill, have also been suspended in recent days. Vendors said the reason Meta gave them for the suspensions was that their accounts did not “follow our Community Standards on guns, drugs and other restricted goods.” Both accounts were restored on Thursday.
The instagram account of Hey Jane, another abortion pill provider, was recently invisible in instagram searches, said Rebecca Davis, Hey Jane's marketing lead. Something similar happened in 2023 until Meta reversed it, he said.
“We know firsthand that this suppression actively prevents Hey Jane from reaching people seeking timely healthcare information,” Ms. Davis said. “Given Meta's recent promises on free speech, we are incredibly disappointed to see how the platform is restricting our free speech.”
The Food and Drug Administration allows telehealth providers to prescribe online and deliver by mail the abortion-causing prescription drugs mifepristone and misoprostol. Twelve states have banned abortion and more have imposed gestational limits or restrictions on mail-order pills. But providers in states where abortion is legal have been shipping pills to states with bans under protective laws meant to protect them.
Sheera Frenkel contributed with reports.