Mexico City – Suddenly, women contact one of the greatest sources of information about abortion in Mexico Through the application of encrypted messaging, WhatsApp was silent.
The commercial account of the non -governmental organization had been blocked. Weeks later, a similar digital blackout hit a collective in Colombia.
Through the Americas, organizations that guide women who are looking for abortions In several countries, they are raising alarm, denouncing what they see as a new wave of censorship on platforms owned by Technological giant goal – Even in countries where abortion is decriminalized. Organizations believe that this is due to a combination of changes in the goal policies and attacks of anti -abortion groups that denounce their content.
While this also occurs on Instagram and Facebook, the blockade of the verified commercial accounts of WhatsApp of organizations, which they use to communicate with people seeking help, has been particularly harmful. These accounts are crucial to communicate with people seeking help, and their blockade has significantly complicated daily interactions between women and support suppliers.
Goal generally attributes its content blockage to policy violations, although it has recognized occasional errors. Since January, Goal changed the way the content moderatesNow it depends on the user -generated notes “to allow more speech and reduce application errors.” The president of the United States, Donald Trump, said the changes were made “probably” in response to their threats about what conservatives considered a liberal bias in the verification of facts.
Among the organizations whose commercial accounts of WhatsApp were suspended is the MSI Foundation (formerly Marie Stopes), part of a network that works in Mexico for 25 years. His account was suspended in February, and the Colombian group Orientame, or Guide Me, who has worked on the health of women in Colombia for decades, was labeled by Instagram as “dangerous.”
While conservatives cheered the change in the goal policies moderation, organizations that help women seeking abortions say that they are often excessive, probably driven by artificial intelligence, which marks or disproportionately eliminates their positions, obstacles that have increased since the beginning of the Trump administration.
“It is not always an intentional censorship, but the result is even more censorship for us and our partners,” said Martha Dimitratou, digital strata of women based in Canada on the web and the headquarters based in the United States C.
“One day to the next they blocked the communication between our users and women who need first-hand information” to address doubts or seek medical monitoring with MSI, said Araceli López-Nava, director of Latin America of the organization.
In the days after suspension, appointments fell 80%
López Nava said MSI had faced problems with the regular WhatsApp numbers, because it is easy to file complaints. Then, the organization thought it would be different with a commercial account, which gives them a platform to manage the thousands of messages that receive each month.
That was not the case. After an initial suspension, MSI’s commercial account was permanently suspended two weeks later. The reason cited in the goal notification? “Send spam”.
“The argument is that they have received complaints, but who?” López-Nava asked. She said the organization cannot be accused of sending spam because they only respond to those who contact them and provide information according to the Mexican law. Abortion was fallen in Mexico at the federal level and in most of its 32 states.
“It seems to us an orchestrated strategy for us,” said López-Nava. “And not necessarily by goal.”
Dimitratou said that cases of blocked content have increased since Trump’s choice, not only in the United States, but throughout the world, probably driven by anti -abortion groups.
Conservative or religious groups have a history of trying to take advantage of technology companies to obstruct the efforts of abortion supporters, but the anonymity of application reports prevents organizations from testing who is behind it.
That is why MSI and an ally NGOs, Women’s Link worldwide, have asked the goal to implement transparent mechanisms to be able to appeal the company’s decisions and respect international human rights standards. They have not received an answer.
A Meta spokesman told The Associated Press that MSI’s WhatsApp commercial account was blocked for valid reasons, saying that organizations that receive numerous negative comments receive warnings before the suspension. Goal declined to provide details about the nature of negative comments or comment on whether they could coordinate them by anti -abortion groups with the aim of paralyzing MSI.
The women’s Instagram accounts in the United States and women on the web on Latin America were suspended just after the presidential elections of the United States in November, although they were later reinstated. Dimitratou said Meta has also limited the organization’s capacity to place ads in accounts in Latin America, South Korea and Western Africa.
Repro Uncensored, an organization co -founded by Dimitratou, has documented at least 60 cases of similar digital censorship since January. The most recent occurred this week, when Thailand’s Tamtang Group said Facebook had accused them of violating the rules about the sale of medicines simply to share information about free abortion pills provided by the Thai government.
A 2025 report from the California Printing Justice Center, based on a survey of 159 non -profit organizations worldwide, found that the main technological platforms were eliminating ads and content related to abortion and the problems of sexual and reproductive health of other women such as menopause.
When asked about the report, Meta minimized his findings, noting that he was based on a small number of examples.
Technological companies often cite policies against explicit or inappropriate sexual content or the announcement of insecure substances, such as abortion pills, despite the fact that the World Health Organization has said they are safe.
In April, months after Meta announced changes to guarantee greater freedom of expression, Orientame, the Colombian collective that offers reproductive health services, published on Instagram a drawing of a heart and the phrase “abort without pain.” The publication was blocked with the explanation: “People and dangerous organizations, eliminated photo.”
While Colombia legalized abortion in 2022, Orientame experienced a censorship of at least 14 of its Instagram positions in April 2025. That same month, its WhatsApp commercial account was suspended, said Tatiana Martínez, who manages her social networks. Although the WhatsApp account was restored after a week, they are worried that it may happen again.
A Meta spokesman said this week that Instagram publications were eliminated by mistake and not the result of a change in their content standards.
The director of Orientame, María Vivas, says that the organization has been fighting Google for years for online content limitations. The technological giant said in a message to the AP that only restricts the content when it violates policies. But Google keeps Colombia in the list of countries with restrictions on abortion ads, despite the fact that abortion was decriminalized there in 2022.
As for his problems with goal, Vivas said they began at the end of 2024, when the company began to change some of its internal policies.
Taking legal actions against technological giants, when each country has its own laws, is complicated. As a result, affected organizations have resorted to creative strategies, such as operating multiple support accounts, having a ready -ready substitute when one is blocked and reformulating language in publications to avoid censorship triggers.
“It seems that goal is our boss,” Livas joked about the continuous struggle with the technological giant on the basic right to provide health information. “We live to respond to goal, to adapt to the goal,” he said. “That is absurd.”
____
The journalist of AP Maria Cheng contributed to this New York report.
____
Follow the AP coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean in https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america
