Meta removes dozens of abortion advice and queer advocacy accounts

Meta has removed or restricted dozens of accounts run by abortion providers, queer groups and reproductive health organisations in recent weeks.

Campaigners have called the takedowns one of the biggest waves of censorship on Meta’s platforms in years.

The actions began in October and targeted the Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp accounts of more than 50 organisations worldwide, some serving tens of thousands of people.

Many were from Europe and the UK, with bans also affecting groups serving women in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East.

Repro Uncensored, an NGO tracking digital censorship against movements focused on gender, health and justice, said it had recorded 210 incidents of account removals and severe restrictions affecting these groups this year, compared with 81 last year.

Martha Dimitratou, executive director of Repro Uncensored, said: “Within this last year, especially since the new US presidency, we have seen a definite increase in accounts being taken down, not only in the US, but also worldwide as a ripple effect.

“This has been, to my knowledge, at least one of the biggest waves of censorship we are seeing.”

Meta denied any escalating trend of censorship and said its policies on abortion-related content had not changed.

“Every organisation and individual on our platforms is subject to the same set of rules, and any claims of enforcement based on group affiliation or advocacy are baseless,” it said in a statement.

Organisations affected include Netherlands-registered Women Help Women, a non-profit offering information about abortion to women worldwide that fields about 150,000 emails a year.

Kinga Jelinska, executive director of Women Help Women, said the ban could be “life-threatening”, pushing some women towards dangerous, less reliable information sources.

“It’s a very laconic explanation, a feeling of opacity,” Jelinska said. “They just removed it. That’s it. We don’t even know which post it was about.”

Meta said more than half of the accounts flagged by Repro Uncensored have been reinstated, including Women Help Women, which it said was taken down in error.