The hash tag “Delete Facebook” has been trending online since August 9, 2022, after the police in United States used private chats obtained from the social media platform to prosecute a teenager for an abortion.
According to reports, a 17 year old, Nebraska teenager is facing criminal charges for allegedly abortion a foetus in violation of state law after authorities obtained her Facebook messages using a search warrant.
The girl, who is being tried as an adult along with her mother Jessica Burgess, is awaiting trial in Madison county district court on charges that they broke a Nebraska law banning the abortion of pregnancy after 20 weeks.
On Tuesday, Facebook users in the United States took to Twitter en mass to call for a cancelation of the platform.
Responding to the trend, Meta spokesperson, the parent company to facebook, Andy Stone, said that the chats were made available to the police based on a warrant containing charges relating to a criminal investigation, not abortion.
“Nothing in the valid warrants we received from local law enforcement in early June, prior to the Supreme Court decision, mentioned abortion.”
“Both of these warrants were originally accompanied by non-disclosure orders, which prevented us from sharing any information about them. The orders have now been lifted,” Andy added.