The aftermath of the decision made by the US Supreme Court to overturn the Roe vs. Wade ruling is still being felt, as Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta has moved to take down all posts on the two platforms made by people trying to sell pills for abortion.
The company pointed out that these posts are a violation of its policy on pharmaceuticals.
In the wake of the US Supreme Court’s decision, thousands of people took to social media platforms – such as Facebook and Instagram – to let their followers know that they would be willing to sell abortion pills to those who live in states where the act is now banned.
However, the company promptly took down those posts from both platforms, with the publishers saying that they received a notification by Meta in their personal emails, telling them that their status update had been removed. When they tried posting about it again, their accounts were banned.
It’s worth mentioning that, under the same guidelines for selling pills, Facebook and Instagram also don’t permit any posts that attempt to sell tobacco, cannabis or guns by users. Yet, as reported by The Verge, similar posts trying to sell firearms or pot weren’t immediately taken down from Facebook.
Additionally, some of these posts have been made from users outside the US, which means that even Aussie users could get a slap by Meta for trying to sell abortion pills.
This isn’t the only measure that the company has taken after the Supreme Court’s highly controversial ruling. Recently, they announced that none of their employees were allowed to discuss the topic of abortions in the workplace, in fear that it “might create a hostile environment”. They went on to take down all internal posts within their Workplace platform that mentioned the word.
However, they did say they would be willing to pay for their health-related expanses to states that offer reproductive services, as long as it’s within the “extent permitted by the law”.
