police investigation
According to court documents, a Nebraska detective was investigating a case in which the 17-year-old state resident was a suspect. Police suspected she had an abortion, and Facebook helped investigators find evidence in the case.
The messages made it clear that the girl was discussing taking abortion pills. Based on this information, police searched the family’s home and confiscated six smartphones and seven laptops with data such as web browsing history and a total of 24 gigabytes of emails. Among the collection, researchers hope to find evidence that it was a girl who ordered the abortion pills.
What is the girl accused of?
The 17-year-old girl is on trial as an adult for having an abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy, having an unlicensed abortion, concealing her death and perjury.
It should be noted that the police did not find any evidence of guilt other than the illegal disposal of the fetus prior to receiving the message from Facebook.
Meta’s position regarding personal data disclosure requests
Meta had previously appealed court orders regarding user information. Facebook’s policy to object to a request for user data is that if the request is inconsistent with applicable law or policy, or is legally invalid or excessive, the company will object or adapt the information it provides.
Meta’s reaction
Meta then made a statement on the subject specifically stating the following:
Prior to the Supreme Court decision, abortion was not mentioned in the valid permits we received from local law enforcement in early June. Arrests and court documents relating to the allegations related to the forensic investigation show that police at the time were investigating the case of a dead baby buried, not an abortion order.
Abortion ban in the USA
We will remind you that on June 24, the US Supreme Court actually allows states to decide independently on abortion bans. Therefore, from now on, where abortion is prohibited, it will automatically be considered a crime.
Some tech companies have taken steps to protect the privacy of those who want to go through the procedure, but most have carefully avoided taking a hard line and refuse to comply with requests for such data. Frankly, Facebook has placed itself in the latter camp.