An anti-abortion activist from Florida has filed a lawsuit against Google, claiming the tech giant unlawfully shut down her account without warning and refused to provide the reason.
76-year-old Trudy Perez-Poveda, who has had her Google account since 2012, alleged that the company violated state law by suspending her account. Perez-Poveda recounted that her account was disabled shortly after she sent an email last September to members of Family for Life, a volunteer group she is involved with, regarding a scheduled Mass outside an abortion clinic in Florida. An hour later, she received a notification from Google informing her that her account was suspended, per the Daily Mail.
Google told her, "Due to security reasons we are unable to share the exact policy which was violated." After communicating with the company for over a week in an attempt to resolve the issue, she was ultimately told that her account was permanently disabled for violating Google’s acceptable use policy, but did not provide specifics.
“It felt like coming home to a house, which took me twelve years to furnish with family mementos and treasures, and find[ing] it completely empty without even a note explaining why,” Perez-Poveda said in her lawsuit.
Perez-Poveda has argued that she is a victim of censorship and has enlisted the Thomas More Society, a law firm known for handling abortion-related cases, to represent her. The lawsuit was filed in Duval County Circuit Court, seeking to reverse Google's ban and restore her account.
Matt Heffron, Senior Counsel at the Thomas More Society, voiced concerns about what he described as a “growth of censorship” in the United States. "Large social-media companies act as a 'digital public square,' and play a central role in the debate of ideas. Our case… is part of the urgent and overdue pushback against this rising tide of censorship," Heffron said.
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