Facebook Gave Nebraska Cops A Teen's DMs So They Could Prosecute Her For Having An Abortion

[Pete Ross Junior]

Facebook Gave Nebraska Cops A Teen's DMs So They Could Prosecute Her For Having An Abortion
Forbes

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.

...

Much worse than anything pre-1973. Also, Facebook strikes again.

[uponit7771]

1. K&R, just saw Abortion is a top five issue for Latino's in different markets & religious affiliation

[ecstatic]

4. As in wanting to restrict abortion or keep it safe and legal?

[uponit7771]

5. 75% no matter what market or religion want to keep it safe and say it should NOT be banned. Dems ...

... have a chance now to crush the current GQP leadership into dust

The poll was last segment on Morning Joe

[LizBeth]

10. That surprises me in the religious areas....

[uponit7771]

11. yep, I was blown away ... this is an issue dems need to use to crush MAGA and get that infestation

... out of the US asap before it festers even more.

[shrike3]

14. Doesn't surprise me.

Most people understand that abortion is a sometimes lfesaving medical procedure.

[Lonestarblue]

22. Surprising numbers.

I suspect that younger Latinos want to keep abortion while older, more conservative parents and grandparents believe it should be banned. Unfortunately, it is the older ones who vote, though with this issue younger Latinos may register and vote in greater numbers.

Living in Austin, I encounter quite a few Latinos and I’ve sometimes asked them about voting when an election is near. I often get the excuse that they’re too busy. In the past, I’ve gently encouraged them to register and vote. I may be a bit more than encouraging in the future.

[uponit7771]

26. +1,

[ecstatic]

2. This should be national news.

All I can do is shake my head. Is this what the American people really want? If not, then it's time to wake the fuck up. Now.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

3. Really looking forward to what increased cop funding will do in light of Dobbs.

[Wicked Blue]

6. So now every miscarriage is going to be suspected

This is insanity. This is fucking war!

So many women have miscarriages.

I hope FB's karma catches up with it.

[Lonestarblue]

23. While not impossible at 23 weeks, miscarriages typically happen at a much earlier stage.

This is a perfect example of the vigilante system Republicans are setting up to have citizens spy on citizens, reminiscent of the East German Stasi. But Republicans want a police state because they think it will hurt all those promiscuous, unmarried women who dare to have sex. They want nosy neighbors to go through someone else’s trash in case there’s a pregnancy test in there so they can report it to the police.

I wonder if this teenager was just too poor to go to another state for an abortion. That will happen with a lot of poor women now.

[LeftInTX]

34. I believe it started with a friend who went to the police and said

"I have a friend who buried her fetus"...Something on that order. Obviously if the friend knew about the burial, she likely knew about the pills. The warrant simply states that an informant told them about a buried fetus.

As to why the friend did this, who knows? My hunch is she got mad at her and wanted to get even...Isn't that the usual reason teens turn on each other?

That the grounds for issuance of the search warrant are as follows:
On 04-26-22 began in investigation into the concerns that a juvenile female, identified as Celeste Burgess (06-16-04), had given birth prematurely supposedly to a stillborn child. C. Burgess then enacted the help of her mother, Jessica Burgess (02-01-81) and the two of them buried the child together. Both of the Burgess’ were telling others they needed to dig the child's body up and then burn it https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7zevd/this-is-the-data-facebook-gave-police-to-prosecute-a-teenager-for-abortion

Celeste miscarried on April 20 or 21st.

[halfulglas]

7. So Facebook is willing to assist in ruining the life of a 17-year-old and her mother because

The fetus was a few weeks further along than the state deemed right?

[Pete Ross Junior]

12. I suppose the FB position is always to cooperate with law enforcement. Not good. n/t

[LeftInTX]

29. They were served a warrant.

[Mike Nelson]

8. Hmm...

... it says, "obtained her Facebook messages using a search warrant" but the implication is that FB willfully decided to violate this family's privacy rights. I think the "Republican lawmakers" are the real villains, here.

[Brainstormy]

17. where is the "willing" part?

It says there was a search warrant. I don't see how it would be any different if they individual had posted something incrimination on DU and then a search warrant was demanded.

[LeftInTX]

32. We don't use our real names! LOL

I agree FB, is not the villain.

This whole case is weird. The teen apparently blabbed to her friend and her friend went to the police. The mom and the daughter got someone else involved to bury the fetus. (Weird..couldn't they bury it themselves??) And what's with the friend going to police to squeal on a friend?? Maybe there is more to this story...

[Mike Nelson]

35. In the...

... headline: "Facebook Gave Nebraska Cops A Teen's DMs So They Could Prosecute Her For Having An Abortion" - It makes Facebook the title/subject/villain, when FB was responding to a subpoena. If it happened here, I guess the headline could be "Liberal Website 'Democratic Underground' Gave Nebraska Cops a Teen's DMs so They Could Prosecute Her for Having an Abortion" - nothing false, but tries to spin the story on a different top.

[Oneironaut]

9. Facebook is a scumbag company, and, there is no privacy on there.

Never put anything on Facebook you wouldn’t be comfortable showing to the public. Even DMs and restricted profiles.

[sdfernando]

13. I dropped Facebook years ago

Hardly ever used it anyway….. I’ve encouraged family members to leave as well. I’m don’t know why anyone would continue to use that way platform.

[halfulglas]

15. I'm on Facebook because my family and extended family is scattered

Around the country and I can keep tabs on their "adventures." But you have to go and edit your own information and make sure you aren't open to everyone. Also edit your information that they have listed. It's none of their business what school you went to. Also you often can't control if you're at an event and someone else tags you in their photo. So it's inevitable even if you aren't "on" facebook that your name and photo are out there from someone else posting. But if you are on FB, go in periodically and check when other people tag you, or even ask that they don't. I think because of some of those tags I keep getting "suggestions" from FB for friends that I don't even recognize who they are saying I have as mutual friends. And delete those who haven't posted on your site in ages or pissed you off.

Not to mention that some of the things "friends" post I'm appalled at, playing FB games that give away so much information that if a stranger came up to me and asked me I would say "None of your business" but things freely and breezily given away.

[Brainstormy]

16. How is this "Facebook strikes again"

when the teenager posted the incriminating messages herself and a warrant was required to get them?

[OMGWTF]

18. This is beyond horrible, but who TF would post something like that on FB in the first place?

[Torchlight]

19. And Meta gets to say "we were just following orders"

And much of the flock gets the chance to say "Facebook was only following orders" too.

And more and more women will be arrested by members of law enforcement justifying their actions with "we were only following orders."

It will be the New & Improved Argument. Taste Great. Less Filling. The Cause That Refreshes.

[JoeOtterbein]

20. K n R

The evil creeps will stop at nothing.

[del19713]

21. Do we live in China?

This is something that happens in China.

[usonian]

24. This is how tyranny takes over.

When people let one "little" breach of the constitution after another slide, AND DON'T STAND UP TO INJUSTICE.

I posted yesterday:

I *HATE* to go negative on Facebook, but:
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/facebook-turned-chat-messages-mother-daughter-now-charged-abortion-rcna42185
Facebook turned over chat messages between mother and daughter now charged over abortion

Facebook turned over the chats of a mother and her daughter to Nebraska police after they were served with a warrant as part of an investigation into an illegal abortion, court documents show.



If we expect jurors to nullify unconstitutional laws against abortion (because, IMO, they establish one religion's beliefs as law, against other religions who do not share that belief,) then companies SHOULD REFUSE warrants based on blatantly unconstitutional laws.

BUT THEY DON'T
Zuckerberg, roast in hell.

As for nullification, STANDING UP TO TYRANNY is the RIGHT THING TO DO.
And "going with the flow" puts you, your company, in the company of cowards and "compliants" that tyrants need.


https://www.democraticunderground.com/100217012489
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/08/roe-v-wade-how-to-keep-women-who-have-abortions-from-going-to-prison.html
The One Thing People Can Do to Keep Anyone Who Has an Abortion Out of Prison

Restoring the rights lost in Dobbs will require massive political mobilization–far more than any one person could possibly achieve. But one person is all it takes to stave off at least some of the most devastating harms of criminalization. A single juror’s vote of “not guilty” can spare a defendant—any potential parent, doctor, friend, or anyone else prosecuted and brought to trial—from criminal conviction. Regardless of the strength of the evidence. Regardless of what the judge believes. Regardless of how many other jurors disagree. It’s every juror’s super-power.

Jury nullification–or the power of jurors to vote to acquit even in the face of overwhelming evidence–is rooted in English common law and has been an American tradition since before the nation’s founding. For instance, in 1735, a journalist and printer named John Peter Zenger was charged with libel for publishing articles critical of New York’s colonial governor. Zenger did not deny publishing the articles. Instead, he argued that they were true. Although “truth” was not a valid defense to libel at the time, he asked the jury to acquit him on that ground nonetheless. They did. Other examples of nullification abound. Juries nullified prosecutions of abolitionists charged under the Fugitive Slave Act and businesspeople charged with alcohol-trafficking during Prohibition.

https://reason.com/2022/08/05/he-was-arrested-for-promoting-jury-nullification-a-federal-court-says-that-was-illegal/
He Was Arrested for Promoting Jury Nullification. A Federal Court Says That Was Illegal.

http://www.dorfonlaw.org/2022/05/nullification-in-abortion-prosecutions.html
Nullification in Abortion Prosecutions

Five Justices are poised to disrupt a half century of expectations, and there is little political recourse. It is precisely in such cases that the jury can serve as a bulwark against the injustices of the state(s).

Update, they did.

AND FUCK ZUCK

[Pete Ross Junior]

25. This one gets it. You said it better than I could.

I'd boycott Facebook except I was never on it in the first place.

[usonian]

27. Same here. I'd have to join in order to quit.

And don't forget Cambridge Analytica, the deliberate delays in removing incendiary material.

Of course, Apple (and no doubt Google) removed apps and censored material upon orders of Russia and China.

It just boils down to your intention, whether business or politics or religion or anything:

Do you serve people, or use them?

and not like this:



Though, I "cooked up" a happy ending.

[LeftInTX]

28. These were text messages between mother and daughter.

They served facebook with a warrant.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messenger_(software)
Messenger[11] is a proprietary instant messaging app and platform developed by Meta Platforms. Originally developed as Facebook Chat in 2008, the company revamped its messaging service in 2010, released standalone iOS and Android apps in 2011, and released standalone Facebook Portal hardware for Messenger calling in 2018. Later,[when?] Facebook launched a dedicated website interface, Messenger.com, and separated the messaging functionality from the main Facebook app, allowing users to use the web interface or download one of the standalone apps. In April 2020, Facebook released a Messenger desktop app for Windows and macOS.

Messenger is used to send messages and exchange photos, videos, stickers, audio, and files, and also react to other users' messages and interact with bots. The service also supports voice and video calling. The standalone apps support using multiple accounts, conversations with optional end-to-end encryption, and playing games.

This is no different than getting a warrant for SMS messages via a phone carrier or AOL instant messenger, IRC, ICQ via an ISP.

Facebook private messages can be done on both a computer and phone, so they are often more versatile and desirable than SMS messages. For instance, my carrier, ATT limits the number of people who can be on text chat, Messenger does not. Also my carrier compresses pics that I send via SMS text, Messenger does not. When my hubby takes pics, I tell him, please send via FB Messenger because ATT turns them into low resolution.

Unless you are familiar with how it works, you can bash facebook all you want.

[PlanetBev]

31. Rule Number #1

If it’s anything other than your Thanksgiving dinner photos, don’t post on Facebook. You are being watched.

[LeftInTX]

33. They also seized her medical records before they say got a warrant for FB. Blame the clinic?

As many on DU would say is a HIPAA violation. It is not if there is a search warrant issued.

The medical records proved she was pregnant on March 8, 2022. So obviously she was obtaining prenatal care somewhere. If there was no medical record of her being pregnant there would be no crime.

When the girl in Texas was arrested for abortion, everyone on DU was blaming the hospital and said it was a HIPAA violation.

Also, do we blame the friend who went to the police and said, "I have a friend who had an abortion and buried the fetus"?

The girl who obtained the abortion was using FB while being interviewed by police. She was scrolling her FB messages to determine the date the she had miscarried.

When I conducted the interview with C. Burgess I wanted to try and figure out when the miscarriage occurred. C. Burgess scrolled through her messages on her Facebook Messenger account. She showed me where she was trying to message J. Burgess to get her attention. The message showed it was sent on 04-22-22 at 0338 hrs.

1 believe that the above property is being secured, kept, or used in violation of the laws of the State of Nebraska, or is being secured or kept at the premises of Meta Platforms, Inc., 1601 Willow Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025, and constitutes evidence of, or evidence relevant to proving a violation of the laws of the State of Nebraska, to wit: Prohibited Acts with Skeletal Remains https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7zevd/this-is-the-data-facebook-gave-police-to-prosecute-a-teenager-for-abortion

All this drama over Facebook reminds me of all the drama the Edward Snowden generated. "Snowden is a hero. Use VPN. The govt is spying on everyone. Julian Assange is a hero"...

The real enemy are the Republicans. Why did her friend go to police? It seems like Celeste herself was not too smart because she was browsing her phone while talking to police. It is also kinda strange to be receiving prenatal care, when you really don't want to be pregnant. My hunch is: This case will be dropped. It's a cluster fuck. Can they really prove that pills killed the fetus? It's like the case in Indiana...An autopsy cannot prove the cause of the death. And the conversation between mom and daughter on messenger lasted 15 minutes. It was laced with other stuff like, "I hear thunder. I have a sore throat" Fuck those prosecutors.

[Wednesdays]

36. K&R