Politics : Mother & daughter charged with abortion after Facebook turns over chat messages

Mother & daughter charged with abortion after Facebook turns over chat messages

Facebook turned over information to Nebraska authorities that led to a mother and daughter being arrested over an alleged illegal abortion.

NBC News reports that the investigation into the mother and daughter was launched in April, before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

It is one of the few known instances of the social media site divulging information to help authorities pursue an abortion case, according to NBC News.

Prosecutors say 41-year-old Jessica Burgess obtained abortion pills and gave them to her then-17-year-old daughter, Celeste, and then helped her bury and then rebury the fetus. Both Burgess and her daughter were charged last month. A lawyer for the two women did not respond to NBC News’ request for comment.

A Nebraska state law that was enacted before Roe was overturned states that abortion is illegal 20 weeks after an egg is fertilized.

An affidavit from Detective Ben McBride of the Norfolk Police Department states Burgess had a miscarriage 23 weeks into her pregnancy, soon after taking abortion pills, according to NBC News.
Meta always has to comply with legal requests for data, and the company can only change this if it stops collecting that data in the first place. In the case of Celeste and Jessica Burgess, this would have meant making end-to-end encryption (E2EE) the default in Facebook Messenger. This would have meant that police would have had to gain access to the pair’s phones directly to read their chats. (E2EE is available in Messenger but has to be toggled on manually. It’s on by default in WhatsApp.)

“Meta has the ability to make end-to-end encryption the default for all of its messages, ensuring that no one but the message senders — not even people at Facebook or Instagram themselves — can access private conversations,” said George of Fight for the Future. “Until Meta gives up surveilling private messages and begins protecting its users with end-to-end encryption, it remains complicit in the surveillance and criminalization of pregnant people.”

However, private chat messages are only one component in a whole range of digital evidence that is likely to be used by police to prosecute illegal abortions in the United States. Investigators will be able to request access to many data sources, including digital health records, Google search history, text messages, and phone location data.

Re: Mother & daughter charged with abortion after Facebook turns over chat messa

…then helped her bury and then rebury the fetus

Did they leave a part poking out the ground first time around?

Alba gu bràth

Re: Mother & daughter charged with abortion after Facebook turns over chat messa

Facebook = pussies

My password is password

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This message has been deleted.

Re: Mother & daughter charged with abortion after Facebook turns over chat messa

A lot of people here would be delighted if Facebook had handed over information in support of a cause they believed in.

Stop using Facebook. Stop using social media all together. It's fucking the world up.

My password is password

Re: Mother & daughter charged with abortion after Facebook turns over chat messa

Most social media is fucking crap.

Melting down over top boy

Re: Mother & daughter charged with abortion after Facebook turns over chat messa

I can't believe they're actually taking this to trial. In other states, she would've had the right to end the pregnancy, but because of arbitrary rules in Nebraska, she's charged with a crime? And the entire world knows her name now, when it was a private issue that should have stayed private.

People in Nebraska should be angry that their taxes are paying the cops to investigate this horseshit.

My password is password

Re: Mother & daughter charged with abortion after Facebook turns over chat messa



Hark! Harold the angel sings.

Re: Mother & daughter charged with abortion after Facebook turns over chat messa

Investigators will be able to request access to many data sources, including digital health records, Google search history, text messages, and phone location data.

Everyone should be disturbed by that. This isn't just an abortion rights issue, it's a privacy rights issue.

My password is password

Re: Mother & daughter charged with abortion after Facebook turns over chat messa

People are sheep. They don't care until it affects them.
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