Facebook as evidence in a US abortion charge offers a private conversation in a chat

Platform Facebook have participated in Abortion charges in the United States, After a court order forced her to have a private conversation between the two defendants, it incriminated them.

series NBC News This Tuesday indicated that an investigation began in April in Nebraska, where voluntary interruption of pregnancy after 20 weeks is considered illegal.

The two accused Jessica Burgess41 years old, and her daughter light bluewho was 17, according to the prosecutor’s office, bought the mother and gave her abortion pills to the teenager and then helped her bury the fetus.

The Madison County Courthouse investigation includes two pages of a conversation between the two on April 20 on Facebook Messenger about the purchase and use of those pills.

“One pill slows down the hormones and then you have to wait 24 hours to take the second.”says the mother to the young woman, explaining that she had already received the order issued a month ago.

“Remember we burn evidence when it’s all over,” Celeste replies, shortly after expressing her happiness to be able to wear jeans again so soon. The two were charged with “innocence”.

The investigation began before the Supreme Court on June 24 invalidated abortion protections at the federal level, and according to NBC News, this is one of the few known cases in which Facebook has provided information to judicial authorities in an abortion case. .

The investigation began after a woman who said she was friends with Celeste told police she saw Celeste take her first birth control pill in April, according to an affidavit from Norfolk Police Detective Ben McBride.

The latter added that the miscarriage occurred when the teen was 23 weeks pregnant, shortly after taking those pills.

Facebook Messenger offers the ability to have encrypted conversations that cannot be read by the platform or any government authority claiming those conversations, but this option is only available when the discussion is taking place in the mobile app and marked as confidential.

Other than that, as noted by NBC News, the company keeps most of the user’s information on its servers, which means it can access it if forced to do so by court order.