Facebook triggers anger by obeying US police investigating abortion cases, increasing boiling concerns, the platform will be a tool to clamp the procedure.
The criticism that was built after the media report revealed that the giant social networking had submitted the key to a mother who was charged with an abortion for her daughter.
Advocates have warned this kind of things after the American High Court revoked national rights for abortion at the end of June, because large technology companies held a lot of data in user locations and behavior.
Jessica Burgess, 41, was accused of helping her 17 -year -old daughter to end pregnancy in the state of Nebraska as Midwestern.
He faced five charges – including one under the 2010 law which only allowed abortion to 20 weeks after conception.
The girl faces three charges, including one hiding or leaving a corpse.
But the owner of Facebook Meta defended himself on Tuesday by recording the Nebraska court order “did not mention abortion at all”, and came before the Supreme Court’s decision was very divisive in June to cancel Roe V Wade, a case that gave the right to abortion in United in America of the State America part
“The sentence seems to imply that * if the search warrants mention abortion, there will be different results. But of course it’s not true,” Tweeted Logan Koepke, who examined how technology had an impact on problems such as criminal justice.
When asked about submitting the data, the Giant Silicon Valley appointed AFP to the policy of complying with the government’s request when “law requires us to do it.”
Nebraska restrictions were adopted many years before ROE was canceled. Around 16 states have a prohibition or limit in the early weeks of pregnancy in their jurisdiction.
‘Can’t release encrypted chats’
For observers of the world of technology, the Nebraska case will definitely not be the last.
“This will continue to happen to companies that have a large amount of data about people throughout the country and throughout the world,” said Alexandra Givens, CEO of the Non-profit center for democracy & technology.
He then noted that if the company accepted legal requests that were issued well, based on valid laws, there was a strong incentive for them to want to fulfill the request.
“The company must at least ensure that they insist on the full legal process, that the warrant is specific and not an expedition of fishing, the search is very interpreted and that they tell users so that users can try to push back,” Givens added.
Meta did not give the AFP of the Nebraska court orders. The police submission asked the judge to order the company not to tell Putri Burgess about the search warrant for her Facebook messages.
“I have a reason to believe that telling customers or customers about the publication of this search warrant can result in destruction or damage evidence,” wrote the police detective Ben Mcbride.
He told the court that he began to investigate the “concern” in the end of April that Princess Burgess had given birth prematurely for “children born dead”, who allegedly they were buried together.
Advocates note that in addition to not using meta products, a definite way to maintain user communication from government hands is that they are encrypted automatically.
WhatsApp owned by Meta has an end to end, which means the company does not have access to information, but the level of privacy protection is not the default settings on Facebook Messenger.
“The company never said it would not meet the request of law enforcement in situations related to abortion,” said Caitlin Seeley George, a campaign director in the advocacy group to fight for the future.
“If users can rely on encrypted messages, Meta will not even be in a position where they can share the conversation,” he added.