Meta and Google fuel abortion misinformation across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, report finds

The fight for reproductive rights is happening on social media — and major tech giants may not be helping the cause.

A new report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) and global charity MSI Reproductive Choices (MSI) says that Meta and, in a few instances, Google, are restricting abortion information, while furthering misinformation and abuse across countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

The CCDH reports that some abortion providers are restricted from advertising on Meta and Google platforms globally, while Meta also profits from anti-abortion ads placed from within the U.S. that aim to deter people seeking abortions overseas.

How are abortion ads being restricted?

The report claims that ads from MSI have been rejected or removed by Meta in Ghana, Kenya, Mexico, Nepal, Nigeria, and Vietnam, for indeterminate reasons such as “sensitive content”, and that Meta has placed blanket advertising restrictions on MSI’s local teams based in Nepal and Vietnam, without thorough justification.

Meanwhile, ads on “pregnancy options” in Ghana were reportedly blocked by Google. More specifically, MSI’s local team in Ghana said that when planning a campaign using Google Adwords themselves, they were banned from using the term “pregnancy options”.

In addition, the report outlines that Google and Facebook both feature fake pages and websites that imitate MSI’s content, with the intent to scam users in Kenya, Nigeria, and Vietnam; some of these pages are described as asking prospective clients to make mobile money transfers.

Speaking to Mashable, Google representative Michael Aciman said, “This report does not include a single example of policy violating content on Google’s platform, nor any examples of inconsistent enforcement. Without evidence, it claims that some ads were blocked in Ghana for referencing ‘pregnancy options’. To be clear, these types of ads are not prohibited from running in Ghana – if the ads were restricted, it was likely due to our longstanding policies against targeting people based on sensitive health categories, which includes pregnancy.”

Aciman also noted that Google does not prohibit ads using the term “pregnancy options”; however, as a part of Google’s Personalized Advertising Policies, advertisers cannot target curated audiences when running ads for products or services related to “sensitive interest categories”. Therefore, if MSI or other advertisers tried to run a targeted campaign for their own audience list in any these categories, this campaign would not run.

Ryan Daniels, a spokesperson for Meta, said in a statement to Mashable, “We allow posts and ads promoting health care services, as well as discussion and debate around them. Content about reproductive health must follow our rules, including those on prescription drugs and misinformation, and ads promoting reproductive health products or services may only be targeted to people 18+.” Meta reiterates this policy in its Transparency Centre.

Daniels added that Meta will be reviewing the information within CCDH’s report: “We prohibit ads that include misinformation or mislead people about services a business provides, and we will review the content of this report.”

Vital information versus misinformation

The report also alleges misinformation is allowed to run on Meta’s platforms: specifically, misinformation was found by the CCDH to be prominent in Mexico, with anti-abortion ads on Meta claiming that abortion drugs pose “high risks” to women. Many of these ads were reported to have been viewed millions of times, and restrictions on ads that promote sexual and other reproductive health services in Mexico were also found to be restricted.

In Ghana, similarly, anti-abortion groups, such as as Americans United for Life (AUL) and Tree of Life Ministries, run by American-born evangelical Christians based in Israel, reportedly placed ads that featured misleading claims about abortions. Such ads were viewed up to 3.83 million times globally, the CCDH says.

Meanwhile, WhatsApp messages from anti-abortion platforms were found to circulate in Ghana, using abusive language and claiming that MSI is part of a “satanic” agenda. According to MSI country teams, including the one in Ghana, such messaging has resulted in clients being too scared to visit local clinics. In Kenya, too, MSI teams said they have been targeted with abusive language on Facebook and X.

Whitney Chinogwenya, marketing specialist at MSI Reproductive Choices, said in a statement, “False information can only be corrected with facts and evidence, yet from Ghana to Nepal, Meta is removing our Facebook pages and ads with no explanation, while turning a blind eye to abusive messages directed at our team members for simply doing their jobs.”

“Meanwhile Google does next to nothing about harmful websites advertising fake clinics that put women and girls at serious risk. We’re always firefighting the next issue, with no one to turn to but a chatbot,” continued Chinogwenya.

Meta’s responses to concerns from MSI teams about advertising and restrictions have been noted by CCDH and MSI to be inconsistent and vague. In Nepal and Vietnam, for example, MSI says its official accounts on Meta platforms have been restricted from advertising, with the team having to open new accounts — and starting from scratch — to proliferate information.

“Social media businesses mine users’ personal data in the Global South, but take little care to protect local human rights and civil liberties.”

MSI is one of many abortion rights groups facing these difficulties, says the report, with the likes of Amnesty International and several activists also mentioned as being restricted from providing abortion-related content.

“Meta, Google, and others own the platforms on which billions of people get information and share advice, but they refuse to accept the corresponding duty of care to protect people’s ability to access vital medical advice and to take swift action against bad actors who put people’s health at risk,” Imran Ahmed, CEO of CCDH, said in a statement. “Social media businesses mine users’ personal data in the Global South, but take little care to protect local human rights and civil liberties.”

In many of these countries, abortion rights are restrictive. In Ghana, women can seek abortion in certain cases, including rape, incest, or if a risk of fetal abnormality is posed. Kenya has made promises to recognize abortion as a fundamental right, but legal ambiguity around abortion has led to misinformation and illegal procedures at backstreet clinics. In Nepal, abortion has been legalized since 2002, but unsafe procedures are still cause for concern. Mexico decriminalized abortion in 2023, just six months ago, while in Vietnam, abortion in the first 22 weeks of pregnancy is legal.

Regardless of legalities surrounding abortion, information is crucial to communities in the so-called Global South. As Dr. Rishita Nandagiri, a feminist and health lecturer at LSE, wrote in 2022, “While it is important to fight laws that restrict access to abortions, feminist networks and hotlines which provide timely information, such as how to access medical abortion drugs and how to administer them, are equally important.”