According to a regulation regarding medicines, Facebook and Instagram are banning posts from individuals who provide assistance in obtaining abortion pills.
Social media users shared posts offering to deliver abortion pills to people whose access to abortion has been removed or will be shortly in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade on Friday.
However, as reported by Motherboard and the Associated Press, consumers are finding that their offers are soon restricted or eliminated. An AP reporter offered to send abortion pills in a test Facebook post, but it was taken down in under a minute. Similar results were seen in a test conducted by a Verge writer, with a post advertising abortion pills being blocked within two minutes.
The same portion of Meta’s restricted products policy that forbids medications also forbids the sale, gifting, and transfer of weapons and marijuana. A similar test by The Verge promising to mail marijuana wasn’t immediately removed by Facebook, nor were test posts by the AP offering to mail guns and marijuana.
A spokeswoman for Meta, Andy Stone, tweeted on Monday in reaction to reports that “material that attempts to buy, sell, barter, gift, request, or donate drugs is not allowed.” According to Stone, posts that discuss the “affordability and accessibility of prescription drugs” are permitted, and the firm was resolving cases of “incorrect enforcement.”
Questions for clarity on the policy’s application and the causes of the inconsistencies were not immediately answered by Meta.
Social media has emerged as a crucial tool for disseminating information about the various abortion resources accessible in the days following the Roe decision.
However, some significant resource providers have been denied access to their platforms due to social media firms’ moderation decisions at a time when the need is particularly pressing. According to NBC News, Abortion Finder, a website that lets patients look for healthcare providers, was briefly blocked from Instagram on Sunday due to Meta invoking its restricted goods policy. Since then, the account has been reinstated.
