The news: Instagram and Facebook have been removing, suspending, and hiding posts and accounts of several healthcare companies that prescribe abortion pills, according to a New York Times report.

• Affected companies mentioned in the report include Aid Access, Hey Jane, Women Help Women, and Just the Pill.

Why is this happening? Meta said that some of the content violated rules that ban the sale of prescription drugs on its platforms. However, Meta acknowledged that it was over-enforcing its rules and subsequently restored certain accounts and posts.

The bigger picture: Social media platforms have rules and community guidelines that users must adhere to, but gray areas make enforcement challenging.

For instance, it can be difficult to distinguish between general posts about abortion (which are allowed) and advertising abortion services (which is prohibited on most platforms).

Social media companies have previously faced criticism for restricting content on abortion pills, particularly following the 2022 US Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade. This was a time when consumers turned to social media for resources on abortion and reproductive care—but that information was being suppressed.

• #abortionpills was hidden on Instagram for some time in 2022, per NBC News.
• TikTok briefly suspended the account of Hey Jane last year without immediate explanation, while also removing some videos. The account was eventually restored.
• Instagram took similar action on its platform last year against Mayday Health, a company that shares resources on how to get abortion pills.

Our take: Marketers must be more transparent about why they’re censoring certain information sans explanation, particularly as content moderation rules on social platforms keep shifting. Failing to do so could drive more healthcare brands and consumers who have relationships with them to new platforms.

Case in point: Hey Jane’s social media manager just posted an Instagram story saying that the company is expanding to Bluesky in light of its content being recently suppressed on larger platforms.

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