Meta Suspends Abortion Pill Accounts, 'Delete Facebook' Searches Near 5-Year Peak

Meta Platforms META may face declining user rates after its decision to change its content moderation to a community notes style being used by rival X.

Users have noticed several changes since the social media company’s policy shift and President Donald Trump‘s inauguration.

What Happened: Users on Meta-owned Facebook and Instagram who were previously following Joe Biden, Jill Biden and Kamala Harris on the POTUS, FLOTUS and VP accounts are now following Donald Trump, Melania Trump and J.D. Vance.

While this is a normal move for Meta as in past presidential transfers, many users didn't expect the change and were surprised to automatically be following people they may not have wanted to follow.

Adding to the woes were reports and a later confirmation that people who unfollowed those accounts might automatically follow the accounts back, an error Meta acknowledged it was working on.

A report from the New York Times says Instagram and Facebook posts related to abortion pills were hidden, removed and in some cases the related accounts were suspended.

Meta acknowledged that it suspended some accounts and blurred posts, later restoring them after inquiries from the New York Times.

The company said the hiding of posts and suspending of accounts was not related to recent content moderation policies or a change in what can and can't be said on the social media platforms. Users were quick to note the timing of the posts being blocked coming after Meta loosened its restrictions.

Meta previously blocked posts from abortion providers and said the latest move was done in some cases due to its rules that prohibit the sale of pharmaceutical drugs on Facebook and Instagram. The company also acknowledged that some of the posts blocked or account suspensions may have been "over-enforcement."

"We've been quite clear in recent weeks that we want to allow more speech and reduce enforcement mistakes," Meta said in a statement.

Why It's Important: Concerns over what can and can't be posted on Facebook and Instagram has become a major talking point since Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the content moderation policy changes earlier this month.

“It’s time to get back to our roots around free expression on Facebook and Instagram,” Zuckerberg said in a video.

Recent reports have said that Meta will not use the Community Notes approach for paid ads on Facebook and Instagram, which could mean that companies are free to post what they want and potentially violate past and current policies if they are paying to get the content in front of Meta users.

With the content moderation changes, some users are looking to exit Facebook and Instagram and head to rival platforms like Bluesky. This continues a trend that began leading up to the 2024 presidential election and persisted after the results, as X users sought to leave Elon Musk‘s platform due to his close ties with Trump. Like Musk, Zuckerberg also attended Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20.

A report from NBC News showed hundreds of posts and comments across social media of users looking to delete their accounts or to boycott Meta Platforms. Google Trends shows that searches for "delete Facebook" and "delete Instagram" are at their highest level in the past 12 months and nearing five-year highs from late 2020 and early 2021.

Meta Platforms is set to report its fourth-quarter financial results on Jan. 29 after the market close. Analysts expect the company to report earnings per share of $6.77 and revenue of $46.99 billion, according to data from Benzinga Pro.

The company has beaten analyst estimates for earnings per share in seven straight quarters and revenue in nine straight quarters.

Quarterly metrics and company commentary could provide an early look at whether users left the platform or stopped using it less during the months of October, November, and December.

META Price Action: Meta stock is up 1.5% to $646.13 on Friday versus a 52-week trading range of $387.10 to $652.00. Meta stock is up 68% over the last year.

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