Instagram and Facebook remove posts offering abortion pills

theFu: Old fashioned you may be but I'll guarantee that abortion pills will be crossing state lines in a well organised covert fashion.

Plan B are useful for 72 hours mate - available OTC in the sensible states, I'm not sure if everywhere, but I assume so as available on Amazon also. I do hope that the conservative states will not restrict their sale, There will be very few people on this website who themselves or their partner has not has to resort to Plan B at least once in their lives. Condoms' DO break.

Yet, when the AP reporter made the same exact post but swapped out the words “abortion pills” for “a gun,” the post remained untouched. A post with the same exact offer to mail “weed” was also left up and not considered a violation.

Well, priorities could not be more obvious here.

@painkiller : you think they are 'fanatics'??

Online services use text-matching algorithms (sold as 'AI') for this and it is rubbish. Facebook appear to have removed a photo I sent in a FB message the other day, of a squirrel. No idea why. As abortion pills are legal in some states, for folk in those states, FB was breaching the first amendment by censoring their posts. Unless the constitution of the US can be replaced by terms and conditions online. Running with lowest-common denominator censorship - if it is banned somewhere, nobody can post on it, anywhere - may be the shape of things to come for star topology services. The sooner we move to distributed social media systems, the better.

Inevitably, the knives are out for online services first. But what about offline? Will there be searches for abortion pills at air/ports and checkpoints for those entering coathanger states by air, sea, road and rail? Will they be conducting pregnancy tests on women leaving and returning? Is there a protocol for state checkpoints on roads and rail networks within the US? This is a lot like the Irish border issue - a border that is one, but isn't one, at the same time.

As abortion pills are legal in some states, for folk in those states, FB was breaching the first amendment by censoring their posts.

It is impossible for any company to "breach the 1st amendment". Allowing unlimited speech (writing, art, music, sculpture, etc) only applies to the govt, not companies. The 1st amendment only applies to local, city, state, and federal govt. It doesn't force companies or private citizens to allow others to speak when located on their property.

In short, claims that facebook or insta-whatever violate the 1st amendment are completely bogus. JT can censor our posts at any time, for any reason, period. It isn't any different than facebook. They may have a policy, but they don't actually have to follow it. It is impossible for any social network to violate 1st amendment, unless that social network is being run by the govt.

States have checkpoints for commercial vehicles of certain sizes entering their state, but those are often closes. Informally, they are called "weigh stations" because trucks roll over scales to be weighed. Commercial vehicles pay road taxes not just through fuel tax, but also by weight. It is unclear to me how this is actually handled. Trucks that cross between states have DOT - department of transportation - certificates.

It would be impossible for a state to stop every vehicle entering or leaving. Freedom of movement, especially for interstate commerce is part of the US Constitution.

Some states have fruit checkpoints where they try to prevent dangerous insects crossing into their state by preventing any fruit transport into the state. California, Florida and Texas did it, but I've never been stopped entering or leaving Florida or Texas for fruit inspections. I have been stopped entering California, but we were in an RV at the time.

@theFu.

Interesting. Thank you for that. I didn't think the first amendment was quite so limited. US tech companies don't seem particularly moved to implement constitutional standards on their online services. If a government service was shifted to the private sector, it could presumably lose first amendment protection. That would be an odd side-effect of privatisation.

A lot depends upon what the activists target next - a full scale crackdown, or will they move on to their next target - evolution, contraception, etc. Activists, empowered by a win, tend to become more extreme, rather than retiring happy.

At least these pills are IN the USA in some states perfectly legally and will remain that way. Ways will be found to get these to woman in arcane states that have/will ban abortion. There will always be a doctor by word of mouth somewhere to help if something goes wrong. This is the one chink of light in a disgusting week for women's rights in the US.

Going around state laws is illegal. But abortion procedures aren't the same as Plan-B pills that have to be taken within a few days of the sex act.

The longer working abortion pills (mifepristone and misoprostol) that can be taken within 70 days of the sex act require a prescription. https://www.fda.gov/drugs/postmarket-drug-safety-information-patients-and-providers/questions-and-answers-mifeprex Due to COVID, the FDA changed some rules around mail-order access to the 2 types of drugs required to end early pregnancies at home, though doctors, clinics, and other places that can accurately date when the responsible sex act happened can get licensed to prescribe and deliver the drugs. It is too early to know what impacts the recent SCOTUS ruling have on this method. Other countries don't require a prescription for these drugs within 10 weeks of gestation. The US does require a prescription, with tests usually required before they will be prescribed.

Perhaps I'm old fashioned, but I don't buy drugs off ebay, facebook or any other social networking website. I have bought collectables and even laptops off ebay, spending thousands across multiple transactions, but not using any privacy-sucking social network that is known for liars.

I wouldn't buy a firearm either off the internet either, though I have bought ammunition over the internet from reputable dealers. When it comes to a firearm, there is still sufficient differences in manufacturing that getting a "lemon" is possible. Some family members ran into this. The company replaced the gun, twice, attempting to make them happy. They'd used one at their local gun range and loved it, but the ones they bought and had shipped weren't the same in ways that can only be found during shooting.

The Facebook account was immediately put on a “warning” status for the post, which Facebook said violated its standards on “guns, animals and other regulated goods.”

These fanatics are breaking the rules, and are also potentially causing harm to the end user and others.

They should be permanently banned.