 Conversations related to big tech and the threat that they potentially pose to us, usually pertains to conversations about arbitrary or illegitimate bans on social media, but one element of big tech that most people don't really focus on is the threat that these social media giants pose to our privacy. Now, one story is perhaps the most Orwellian story I've seen yet with regard to big tech and the way that they handed over information to the government to prosecute a teenager for having an alleged illegal abortion. Now, we're not going to get too much into the details of the abortion story itself. I've shared stories from women who have gone through abortions and have had unfortunate experiences. I think that this particular story really highlights the tech elements and the need for you to protect your data. If you are a woman in this story, I hope it gives you the incentive to delete your social media apps that aren't protected, use more encrypted apps like Signal, and also delete your period tracking apps if you still use them. These are very popular, but these can be used to potentially prosecute you in the event you are accused of having an illegal abortion. So, let's go to VICE for the story. They write a 17-year-old girl and her mother have been charged with a series of felonies and misdemeanors after an apparent medication abortion at home in Nebraska. The state's case relies on evidence from the teenager's private Facebook messages obtained directly from Facebook by court order, which show the mother and daughter allegedly bought medication to induce abortion online and then disposed of the body of the fetus. While the court documents obtained by motherboard allege that the abortion took place before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, they show in shocking detail how abortion could and will be prosecuted in the United States and how tech companies will be enlisted by law enforcement to help prosecute their cases. Jessica Burgess is charged with five crimes, three felonies including performed slash attempt abortion at greater than 20 weeks, performed abortion by non-licensed doctor, and removing slash concealing a dead human body. Celeste is charged with one felony, removing slash concealing slash abandoning dead human body and two misdemeanors, concealing the death of another person and false reporting. She's being tried as an adult. Some details of the case were earlier reported by the Lincoln Journal star and Forbes. Motherboard is publishing the search warrants and court records that show specifically how the case is being prosecuted. A jury trial is scheduled for October. Now this case unfortunately has ruined this family. The mother states that they have $400 to their name. So it was difficult for them to obtain an attorney, but it seems like they do presumably have one now. Now other alarming details about this story. Celeste, she told police that she had a miscarriage. They did not believe her and then they decided to issue a search warrant to Facebook. And even if she wasn't being truthful about the miscarriage that she was having in this instance, just the fact that they continue to pursue this teenager after she told them that she had a miscarriage is very frightening because women have miscarriages all the time. And this is why doctors are so apprehensive about performing procedures to remove the dead fetuses from these women because they don't want to be charged with potentially performing an illegal abortion on a live fetus. And I've talked about this before. I'm sorry if I sound like a broken record, but I think that these details are really important. What doctors may do is just decline services to a woman who needs to remove the fetus after having a miscarriage or have that woman provide them rather with a multitude of evidence. Make sure that in the event a cop chooses to pursue them, they can protect themselves. But even if they are shielded from legal culpability and won't be arrested for this, having to defend yourself could bankrupt you as this family is learning. Now she had this abortion at 28 weeks allegedly and that's legal in half the country. So this cop is pursuing her. He doesn't know for sure at the time when he obtains the search warrant for Facebook whether or not she was truthful about her having a miscarriage pursues her anyway for having a procedure that is legal in half of the states. It's just wild to me and they seized 13 laptops and smartphones and they took 24 gigabytes of data including photographs, information documents and the sort. It's genuinely Orwellian. This is the dystopia that conservatives claim to care about, but when it happens to individuals who they disagree with for making a decision about their own body when it happens to children. Let me be clear who they disagree with for making decisions about their own body. They don't care. And a 17 year old is a child. This is a minor, but her and her mother are now in legal trouble. Now some details about Facebook and the way that they've been handling the issue of abortion because as you might have guessed, not too well. This is from Forbes. 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 Gayle, 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 Mypherprostone 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 Markup discovered that Facebook was collecting data from users interacting with abortion services websites and subsequently made that information available to anti-abortion groups. So it's not just the matter of, well, they, you know, were subpoenaed, so they were required by law to turn over these documents. The data that they're collecting is made available to people who are against these women. Who might, for example, if you have this data and you're an anti-abortion group, what's the implication of that? You could take this to local law enforcement so they could potentially prosecute women who allegedly have abortions on live fetuses in states where that is illegal. This is genuinely disturbing and I need people to understand that this is just the beginning. Roe has only been overturned for a month or so, right? Maybe two months, give or take. But we're already seeing the lengths that prosecutors and attorneys general around the country will go to to make sure that women aren't just prosecuted, but other women get the message that in the event you want to get an abortion, this could be your fate. You could be the next individual to be prosecuted. So there's a lot of details to this story. Vice did publish the court order. I'm going to link to that in the description box. Really the main takeaway that I want this to be for you is, again, if you are an individual who is speaking with someone who tells you that they want to have an abortion, if you are a person who has the capacity for pregnancy and you use these social media websites and you're unwilling to delete them, absolutely do not talk about these matters in DMs, in direct messages in any format that could lead to you being penalized with the way that Facebook has conducted itself. It doesn't make you a conspiracy theorist. You're not a tinfoil hat wearer to take steps to protect yourself. I think that makes you logical and you need to protect your data, protect your information, especially when it relates to health decisions like this. Now, another thing that I hadn't previously thought about is the way that different insurance companies, not insurance companies, but healthcare providers, they have online systems so you can interact with your doctor. So for example, I have a health portal where I can send direct messages back and forth with my doctor about medication and whatnot. So in these states, if there are direct messages, i.e. evidence of a potential abortion or miscarriage that looks a little bit suspicious, is that going to be subpoenaed as well? How many doctors will be issued these search warrants? Again, it's really horrifying to think about how far these Republicans are going to go to carry out their forced birth agenda. But again, it's the beginning. Protect yourselves. Delete the apps that you are using that could get you in trouble one day in the event you get an abortion. Do you enjoy watching independent news shows like The Humanist Report, The Rational National, and The Majority Report? But oftentimes, YouTube doesn't deliver our videos to your subscription box. Well, I've got a solution for you. It's called the Optout app available right now in the iOS app store coming soon to Android. Optout is an app made by and for progressives where they take all of the most popular independent news shows and they put them in one convenient location. You'll find all your favorites on there like The Humanist Report, The Rational National, The Majority Report, and the app is updated multiple times per day so your news feed is constantly up to date. If you enjoy watching independent media, this is the app to get downloaded today.