Facebook Gave Nebraska Cops A Teen's DMs So They Could Prosecute Her For Having An Abortion
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
A Nebraska teenager is facing criminal charges alleging she aborted a fetus in violation of state law, after authorities obtained her Facebook messages using a search warrant. Seventeen-year-old Celeste Burgess, who is being tried as an adult along with her mother Jessica Burgess, is awaiting trial in Madison County District Court on charges that they broke a Nebraska law banning abortions after 20 weeks.
This marks one of the first instances of a person's Facebook activity being used to incriminate her in a state where abortion access is restricted — a scenario that has remained largely hypothetical in the weeks following the US Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Nebraska currently outlaws abortions beyond 20 weeks. On Monday, Republican lawmakers in the state failed to secure enough votes to decrease that window to 12 weeks.
Celeste and her mother were charged in July with allegedly removing, concealing or abandoning a dead human body and concealing the death of another person after the Norfolk Police Department received a tip claiming Celeste had miscarried in April at 23 weeks of pregnancy and secretly buried the fetus with her mother's help. The case was first reported by the Lincoln Journal Star.
While Celeste told police that she had suffered a miscarriage, they continued to investigate, serving Facebook with a search warrant to access Celeste and Jessica's Facebook accounts. They subsequently found messages between the mother and daughter allegedly detailing how Celeste had undergone a self-managed abortion with Jessica's help. There are four states that ban abortion at 24 weeks, and more than a dozen that broadly ban it at the start of fetal viability.
After this story's publication, Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said in a statement on Twitter that "Nothing in the valid warrants we received from local law enforcement in early June, prior to the Supreme Court decision, mentioned abortion. The warrants concerned charges related to a criminal investigation and court documents indicate that police at the time were investigating the case of a stillborn baby who was burned and buried, not a decision to have an abortion."Stone added that Meta was prohibited from sharing information about the search warrant by non-disclosure orders which have since been lifted.
A month before Celeste was charged, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook parent Meta, was asked by employees how the company will protect those seeking abortions. Zuckerberg replied that efforts to expand encryption across the platform will "keep people safe," CyberScoop reported. In May, Meta's VP of HR, Janelle Gale, told employees they were not allowed to discuss abortion at work, according to the Verge. The company later announced that it will reimburse employees who find they must travel to a different state to seek an abortion.
Still, Meta has remained largely silent on how it will moderate abortion content in general. However, users recently noticed that Instagram and Facebook posts about acquiring abortion pills such as mifepristone were being systematically removed. At the same time, Meta continued to earn revenue from anti-abortion advertisements containing dangerous misinformation,Media Matters found. An investigation by the Markup discovered that Facebook was collecting data from users interacting with abortion services websites, and subequently made that information available to anti-abortion groups.
In response to pressure from employees, Google announced that it would delete location data of users who had used the platform to look up abortion services.
All of the largest tech giants have been pressed on whether, and to what extent, they may cooperate in investigations that seek to punish women for seeking an abortion. In June, Meta spokesperson Andy Stone told the Washington Post that the company "carefully scrutinize[s] all government requests for user information and often push[es] back, including in court."
A District Attorney assigned to the case declined to comment. An attorney for Celeste Burgess did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Update: This story has been updated to note that the Facebook messages were obtained via search warrant.
Emily Baker-WhiteSarah Emerson
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OK, so FB didn’t “give” anything to the cops. The cops took it on the order of a judge.
It’s still shitty, but the headline makes it sound like Facebook is trying to bust people for getting abortions.
Technically they are correct. facebook did give the info.
I wouldn't trust facebook anyway.
Fuck Nebraska. Fuck those cops and Fuck that judge.
They can all rot in their own hell.
Plus I am not going to call facebook meta.
Sick fucks. People need to delete their accounts with them. Stop giving them power. There are other ways to keep in touch with people.
Three things here.
One, it's disgusting that anti-choice pieces of shit are trying to use social media to track down anyone who is trying to access safe pregnancy terminations.
Two, anyone sharing such extremely personal information via Facebook, even in DM's, is a fucking moron.
Three, if this is just a 'choice' being made at 24 weeks when we've seen fetuses as early as 21 weeks surviving without the mother, then it's not abiding by the framework set down by the Roe decision, even though Roe is no longer the law of the land. They really don't deserve any protections or sympathy when this girl and her mother likely had at least 3 to 4 weeks at minimum knowing she was pregnant before seeking an abortion. Why wait till viability to make this decision? I do know there are cases of women not knowing that they were pregnant until viability, but is that the case here? If not then they should have to deal with the scrutiny and investigation.
I regularly defend a womans right to privacy and bodily autonomy. In my opinion it should be her choice up to the point of viability. But I have never defended women who choose to give up their right to privacy by posting very personal information on social media nor defended anyone deciding on late term abortions that would, by Roe v Wade definitions, be after 'viability' unless it was to save the life of the mother.
I am very pro-choice, but even I have several issues with the facts presented in this case so far.
24 weeks was the law of the land before it was overturned. So technically she would have been within the law.
The one born at 21 weeks was a twin and the twin died. It had a 1% chance of survival and had to have around the clock care for over nine months. They even had to try to teach it how to eat. Still has problems from what I can gather.
As if we need another reason to shun Facebook.
Also, I am sad for the young woman.
OMG. Along with bounties being paid for turning in offenders I think Americans would have a lot of chutzpah and hypocrisy to criticize how any other governments maintain controls on their citizens.
I wouldn't be surprised if wire hanger manufacturers would find themselves charged with aiding and abetting now that America has time-travelled to the middle sges. Are they using DeLorean cars to do it?
Haven't seen any wire hangers in years. They're all those super cheap plastic pieces of crap.
And I am sure some republican lawmakers is already trying to find some excuse to outlaw those clothes hangers.
have they checked for wire whiskes in the kitchen section , attatch that to a dewalt drill and some thing will happen .
* note , there Will be a warning label applied in Ca......
no more wire hangers? how will we roast marshmallows when anti-choice churches start burning? /s
This is illegal in pretty much every country in the world except those that don't enjoy human rights, like China and North Korea.
But sure, America is "trying to control" its citizens by enforcing the laws its citizens passed and agreed to. [Deleted]
If America didn't enforce the laws its citizens passed, how did America succeed in achieving the world's highest rate of incarceration? America uses its Constitution, statutes, laws and regulatons, and its courts to control its citizens. Doesn't seem much different than any other country. Seems to me that an awful lot of American citizens don't necessarily agree with some of the laws that are passed - curtailing abortion rights for example.
I happen to enjoy my human rights where I am living. I can do and have done everything I have wanted to do here. In fact, I feel a lot safer where I am than if I were in the USA.
Is that supposed to mean something?
Doesn't seem much different than any other country.
. Pretend a government premised on the consent of the governed is no different than a government that simply imposes its will on the people it rules. Do you think that fools anyone?
I can do and have done everything I have wanted to do here.
No doubt. Its well documented that some people are happier in prison than being free. Don't have to worry about thinking for yourself or anything like that. Not everyone can handle freedom.
Oh my God, I'm living in prison - HELP!!! About 1.4 billion people in China are in chains, whipped every hour into submission. HELP US!!!!
. 
Isn't America, the world's policeman, going to free us? Send money. LOL
Cool! Can a mod point out where in the COC it' explains why its okay to criticize America but not the CCP government? Given all the points I've racked up simply for criticizing a government that's murdered tens of millions of its own citizens, it should probably be made explicit which totalitarian governments are protected by the mods and which aren't. A CCP can't criticized clause or something to that effect, so it's clear. The arbitrary censoring of criticism of the CCP is a little CCP ish, don't you think?
I have to be honest and admit to you that I was wrong to say that I can do anything I want to do here. One night I couldn't sleep and I turned on the TV at around 2 a.m. to watch a movie - it was Sink the Bismarck. Besides the fact that my vision is waning at my age, so is my hearing so the volume was up. The cannon-fire between ships was extremely loud to start with, and there was a knock at the door. The building's guard asked me to please turn down the TV because it was disturbing the adjoining occupants. Of course I did so - and there is an example of my freedom being curtailed. I can't think of anything else.
she killed a viable human.
Prove it was viable.
Prove it wasnt
What an asinine response. Are you 5 years old?
Sean made the claim, it is up to Sean to prove his claim.
No more asinine than your response. You claim he was wrong and the baby was not viable. The law says different
There was no baby involved. Use proper words if you are going to respond.
Yes there was. It was at an early stage of development but it was still a baby. Those that refuse to believe that only do not because it eases their conscience to do so.
No there wasn't, the closest is that it is a fetus, maybe just a zygote. Not a baby.
Those that refuse to recognize the facts do so to maintain support of their own personal prejudices.
Do do some research. The zygote stage of the development of a human baby last only about 4 days nowhere near 20 weeks. The fetal stage of development of a human baby does last much longer. In both cases it is a human baby in development. It will be Bien a human being. It will not be a worm or a tree or a whale or anything else but a human being.
That maybe but at least my prejudice in this case is pointed towards life and not death as yours is.
So you admit that it is not one yet. Thank you for that admission.
Nope I don't admit that. It is a human baby in each and every one of those stages and as a human it has the right to life
Now you're lying. Here, I'll quote you.
Anyone who knows the English language knows the difference between "will be" and "is".
Wait... They served a search warrant? Oh the horror!
Well when you talk about burning and burying a baby openly on facebook that tends to happen.
And instead of that deceased baby being the victim, the people who burned and buried it are trying to take that role.
How will future generations judge them?
With a lot of help from the admirers.
Hopefully as people unfit to raises children.
Nebraska disagrees with you since they were trying to force her to have it.
Still not old enough to figure that out? Try a Bob Dylan line, "I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now."
Nebraska is doing nothing but enforcing the laws on the books. You know, like laws about burning and improperly disposing of a corpse. Or did you miss that part of the article. I bet you did, didn't you. It helps to pay attention to details.
I don't like smokin' weed.
Neither did Bob.
Correct, the law that would force people, who you've stated are unfit to raise children, to have and raise children.
Funny. I made not mention of being forced to raise a child. That's some fiction YOU are adding in. Although I kind of expected it from you.
No it doesn't. That's not true anywhere in the country.
Funny, what do you think the anti-abortion laws are meant to do? The laws pushed by republican lawmakers, who are also opposed to birth control and allowing their state's citizens from travelling to another state for that abortion.
They are meant to prevent the unneeded death of human babies. Giving the baby up for adoption is an option if you don't want to raise the baby.
Well that's terrible. Baby's should never unneededly be killed. On the other hand, removing some undesired cells from your body, is a standard medical procedure.
A baby in the womb at 20weeks or as in this case 23 weeks of development is much more than
Is her ability to wear jeans more important to you than the life of another human being?
Why waste time on something you don't want or can take care of?
Her ability to control what happens to her own body is more important than some nonviable cells inside her body.
I don't consider the saving the life of a human baby a waste of time. I feel very sorry for you that you have so little concern for the innocent
The baby she aborted was not necessarily nonviable.
If it could not survive outside her body, it was not viable. So you tell me, at 24 weeks, could it live outside her body?
Nope, viability is the ability to survive, those cells had none had they been removed.
Why don't you believe science?
I credit you for clinging to the Nazi approved method of dehumanizing what you want to kill. Easier to talk about "a clump of cells" than admit it's a human life. Sure its cowardly, but it makes it easier to avoid the reality of what you are doing. It's why abortion fanatics hate ultrasounds or descriptions of what happens in an abortion. Easier to hide in a sanitized world where you don't have to face up to what's going on.
So hide behind your sad little semantic deflections. It just demonstrates you can't handle the truth.
Viability means the ability to survive in the environment. Not in an artificially built location. 1 time survival is a fluke, we can debate viability when it is a common occurrence.
“…where you don't have to face up to what's going on…”
Everyone knows exactly what is going on. It is a debate of personal choice vs. the state making that choice for you. If you believe in the sanctity of choice, hard to imagine using the sanctity of life as a rebuttal
For whose life, by whose definition, where you conveniently ignore the individuals whom face up to what's going on. Whose rights take precedence? Yours?
Have you ever seen the ultrasound photos or any other depictions of what a 20 week old developing baby looks like? The are most certainly more than just some cells.
Yes, absolutely.
No, absolutely not.
Then you are blind
The right wing deep state anti-democratic, anti-freedom, anti-free speech, government interference. I wish they used it more to go after right wing nuts threatening our democracy with violent rhetoric.
in this case , i think the state is reaching IMO, she has claimed miscarrige something that happens naturally , its on the state to prove it wasnt .
now depending on state law about how human remains are to be cared for , that will also depend on the states definition of what are and are not "human remains ", and we have all seen the argument of what constitutes human during pregnancy up to delivery and before . so there they may have a case , not the one they want though.