Source: in-cyprus.philenews.com
Meta has shut down or restricted accounts from more than 50 abortion providers, queer groups and reproductive health organisations worldwide since October, sparking accusations from campaigners of an unprecedented censorship drive.
The bans hit Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp accounts serving tens of thousands of people across Europe, the UK, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East.
Repro Uncensored, which tracks digital censorship against gender and health movements, recorded 210 such incidents this year compared with 81 in 2024.
Meta dismissed claims of escalating censorship. “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,” the company said, insisting its abortion content policies remained unchanged.
The platform blocked abortion hotlines operating in countries where terminations are legal, banned European queer and sex-positive accounts, and removed posts featuring cartoon nudity. Campaigners say Meta is globalising its Trump-era stance on women’s health and LGBTQ+ content.
“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,” said Martha Dimitratou, Repro Uncensored’s executive director. “This has been, to my knowledge, at least one of the biggest waves of censorship we are seeing”.
Vague explanations and closed-door meetings
Meta has offered scant explanation for the takedowns. One consultant invited reproductive health groups to a briefing about “the challenges that you are facing with Meta’s content moderation policies” but specified the meeting “will not be an opportunity to raise critiques of Meta’s practices or to offer recommendations for policy changes”.
Dimitratou said such sessions “reinforce the power imbalance that allows big tech to decide whose voices are amplified and whose are silenced”. One Meta employee privately advised an affected organisation to abandon the platform and start a mailing list, warning bans would likely continue. Meta denied sending this message.
Carolina Are, a fellow at Northumbria University’s Centre for Digital Citizens, said Meta routinely purges accounts before backtracking under public pressure. “It wouldn’t be as much of a problem if platforms’ appeals actually worked, but they don’t. And appeals are the basis of any democratic justice system,” she said.
Meta acknowledged its appeals process had become frustratingly slow whilst pledging to reduce enforcement mistakes.
Netherlands group fielding 150,000 emails banned
Women Help Women, a Netherlands-registered nonprofit providing abortion information to women in Brazil, the Philippines, Poland and elsewhere, lost its Facebook page after 11 years on the platform. The group fields roughly 150,000 emails annually from women seeking advice.
Executive director Kinga Jelinska said the ban – the group’s first outright removal after previous suspensions – could prove “life-threatening” by pushing women towards unreliable sources. Meta’s explanation came in a 13 November message stating the page “does not follow our Community Standards on prescription drugs” and promising to “keep Facebook safe and welcoming for everyone”.
“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 later reinstated Women Help Women, calling the ban an error, but insisted other disabled accounts “were correctly removed for violating a variety of our policies including our Human Exploitation policy”. The company said it had restored more than half the flagged accounts.
Colombian helpline banned three times
Jacarandas, founded by young feminists after Colombia decriminalised abortion in 2022, has seen its WhatsApp helpline blocked and reinstated three times since October. The account remains banned.
Executive director Viviana Monsalve said Meta provided minimal guidance on whether restrictions would continue. “We wrote [Meta] an email and said, ‘hey, we are a feminist organisation. We work in abortion. Abortion is allowed in Colombia up to 24 weeks. It’s allowed to give information about it,’” she said.
“You are not sure if [a ban] will happen tomorrow or after tomorrow, because they didn’t answer anything”.
Meta maintained its stance remained consistent: “Our policies and enforcement regarding abortion medication-related content have not changed: we allow posts and ads promoting healthcare services like abortion, as well as discussion and debate around them, as long as they follow our policies”.
Weekly warnings over sexual health content
Groups not banned outright face mounting restrictions. Sex Talk Arabic, a UK-based platform offering Arabic-language sexual and reproductive health content, received near-weekly messages from Meta over the past year stating its page “didn’t follow the rules” and wouldn’t be suggested to others.
Two weeks ago Meta escalated to a formal warning, citing new nudity policies whilst removing a post showing an artistic depiction of a naked couple obscured by hearts.
Director Fatma Ibrahim called the warning “condescending” and accused Meta of US-centric moderation lacking regional context. “Despite the profits they make from our region, they don’t invest enough to understand the social issues women fight against and why we use social media platforms for such fights,” she said.