Meta has removed or restricted dozens of accounts belonging to abortion access providers, queer groups and reproductive health organisations in the past weeks in what campaigners call one of the “biggest waves of censorship” on its platforms in years.
The takedowns and restrictions began in October and targeted the Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp accounts of more than 50 organisations worldwide, some serving tens of thousands of people – in what appears to be a growing push by Meta to limit reproductive health and queer content across its platforms. Many of these were from Europe and the UK, however the bans also affected groups serving women in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East.
Repro Uncensored, an NGO tracking digital censorship against movements focused on gender, health and justice, said that it had tracked 210 incidents of account removals and severe restrictions affecting these groups this year, compared with 81 last year.
Meta denied an escalating trend of censorship. “Every organisation and individual on our platforms is subject to the same set of rules, and any claims of enforcement based on group affiliation or advocacy are baseless,” it said in a statement, adding that its policies on abortion-related content had not changed.
View image in fullscreen In a recent purge queer and sex-positive accounts were banned. Photograph: Courtesy of Repro Uncensored
Campaigners say the actions indicate that Meta is taking its Trump-era approach to women’s health and LGBTQ+ issues global. Earlier this year, it appeared to “shadow-ban” or remove the accounts of organisations on Instagram or Facebook helping Americans to find abortion pills. Shadow-banning is when a social media platform severely restricts the visibility of a user’s content without telling the user.
In this latest purge, it blocked abortion hotlines in countries where abortion is legal, banned queer and sex-positive accounts in Europe, and removed posts with even non-explicit, cartoon depictions of nudity.
“Within this last year, especially since the new US presidency, we have seen a definite increase in accounts being taken down – not only in the US, but also worldwide as a ripple effect,” said Martha Dimitratou, executive director of Repro Uncensored.
View image in fullscreen US president Donald Trump jokes with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, left, as he hosts tech leaders for a dinner in the state dining room of the White House in Washington DC in September 2025. Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images
“This has been, to my knowledge, at least one of the biggest waves of censorship we are seeing,” she said.
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