Therefore, it is a prison sentence that was handed down against Celeste Burgess. The 18-year-old American was sentenced on July 20, 2023 to 90 days in prison and two years of probation for having performed an illegal abortion, reports the New York Times.
The girl, who was 17 at the time, had been charged based on her exchanges with her mother on Facebook. Discussions that had actually been forwarded by the platform to local authorities, as part of the investigation. The two women had agreed to terminate Celeste Burgess’s pregnancy after 20 weeks of gestation, while the legal period is 12 weeks in Nebraska.
The role of the platforms in question
In May, he pleaded guilty and faced up to two years in prison. Thus, the charges of false statement and death cover-up were withdrawn as part of an agreement, specifies CNN. At first, she had claimed to have given birth to a stillborn child.
This issue broke out a few weeks after the revocation of the right to abortion in the United States. Although the decision of the US Supreme Court had no repercussions in the case of Celeste Burgess, she nevertheless became a symbol of the risks faced by women who wish to terminate her pregnancy. And about the role that platforms can play in these situations.
The case had reignited a debate about end-to-end encryption and its implementation by default within certain messaging applications.
Furthermore, the UK would like to undermine this technology that makes it possible for a discussion to be inaccessible to anyone who is not part of it. With its “Online Security Law,” the country wants to be able to access exchanges to detect any illegal content.
WhatsApp already has that it could leave the United Kingdom if it were forced to apply this measure. Same story at Apple, which plans to remove Facetime or iMessage to protect its users’ exchanges.
Source: BFM TV
