One month since YouTube arbitrarily suspended the accounts of leading pro-choice organizations (only to go back on its decision a few days later), the social media platform has targeted another reproductive rights advocate: safe2choose, a social enterprise that connects women all around the world to accurate information and quality, affordable safe abortion pills.
YouTube Censorship: safe2choose account is suspended for promoting safe abortion information and access.
YouTube claims that safe2choose is violating their guidelines by generating content that allegedly “encourages or promotes violent or dangerous acts that have an inherent risk of serious physical harm or death” (read more about YouTube policies here). And they’ve already denied our appeal.
The video that triggered the account suspension is a a testimonial from a 42 year-old Malaysian user, who thanked safe2choose for supporting her through her abortion process. You can still watch it on Facebook and on Twitter.
We believe that sharing this type of testimonials allow women from around the world to learn from other positive experiences, make informed decisions, and avoid risks to their health and safety.
All of our videos contain life-saving information that dispel common myths and misconceptions about abortion. We believe that this is an orchestrated move against women’s sexual health and reproductive rights from YouTube, a company owned by Google.
Abortion advocates react to censorship
Recently, YouTube has also censored channels from other advocate organizations such as Women on Web, Women on Waves, Colectivo de Salud Feminista, and comohacerseunaborto.com
As a response, over 45 organizations have signed a powerful letter has been written to YouTube, questioning its criteria to suspend abortion related content, and still no answer.
What none of these censoring social media platforms seem to acknowledge is that the information shared by these groups is based on the World Health Organization(WHO) medical protocols.
Our outreach aligns with the United Nations recommendation specifically, “to ensure that women are not forced to seek unsafe medical procedures such as illegal abortion because of lack of appropriate services in regard to fertility control.” And, above all, safe abortion saves lives.
Enough with censorship. Let’s raise our voices for freedom of information, freedom of expression and reproductive justice. Share this post and help us get our account back. They won’t shut us down!