The prosecution of a 17-year-old girl for alleged crimes relating to an abortion was the result of Meta giving police user information. The company could have challenged the legal order, but instead provided the teenager's direct messages to the cops, who are now charging her with three felonies for using a mail-order abortion pill.
The case was first reported by the Lincoln Journal-Star, and according to court documents, a Nebraska detective was looking into the case of a juvenile giving birth to a stillborn baby.
An autopsy showed that the fetus had never had air in its lungs, but he didn't believe it was stillborn. He asked Meta to give all the girl's Facebook messages, photos and other data for "statements that might indicate whether the baby was stillborn or asphyxiated."
The information was given and the messages show the girl talking about her medication. Police raided the family's home and seized six phones and seven laptops with 24 gigabytes of data. The investigators want to find the evidence that a teenager ordered abortion pills.
The 17-year-old is being tried as an adult for performing an abortion after week 20 of pregnancy, performing an abortion without a license, concealing a dead body, and lying about it.
Before they got the messages from Facebook, there was no evidence of a crime other than the improper disposal of a fetus. The autopsy evidence supported the girl's account of her death, despite the detective's asphyxiation theory being incompatible with it. It seems cruel to conduct a multi-day investigation into the death of a child.
This was a smokescreen for an investigation presupposing another crime without any evidence. I wonder if other improper burials get the same level of care from the Norfolk police.
Facebook/ Meta has challenged court orders before. If the request is not consistent with applicable law or their policies, Facebook will challenge it or tailor the information it gives. There are many requests where some data is produced.
It's not clear whether the data request authorities at Facebook were aware of the situation. I have asked the company for comment on its decision to hand over the data, as well as its intentions around other cases where its data may incriminate someone in states where abortion is illegal, and I will update this post if I get a response from the company.
This kind of data request can lead to prosecutions of people for abortion. Some tech companies have taken measures to protect the privacy of those seeking the procedure, though most have carefully avoided taking a strong stance. The latter camp seems to have Facebook in it.
8 ways the tech industry can step up to protect abortion rights
All Rights Reserved © 2024
