Who Elected the Algorithm?

Progressive social media communities are being censored, here's how Europe is holding big tech accountable.

June is a month dedicated to visibility. And yet last month, FEMINIST faced a level of censorship that, frankly, should concern anyone who cares about access to information. Our reproductive health content was censored and down-ranked on Instagram, where we’ve built a community of more than six million.

It’s infuriating, especially on a platform where ads for erectile dysfunction medication run without issue. Bette Midler famously said, “If pregnancy is God’s will, then so is your limp dick.” Well, what about the will of the algorithm? Behind the numbers—or lack of them—is actually a much bigger question: who gets to decide what information people see, and what kind of world are they designing?

The platform we’ve built has given us a clear, sometimes overwhelming visibility into the impact of those decisions. Every week, our inboxes fill with messages from partners and friends whose work has been suppressed by the same opaque moderation systems knowing they have communities who depend on them to access the information they need. This week Justyna Wydrzyńska, co-founder of Aborcyjny Dream Team, testified at the European Parliament in Strasbourg that the organization receives as many as 350 messages per day from people in Poland who are seeking abortion care while living under one of the most restrictive abortion laws in Europe – and Meta keeps suspending their account. It’s terrifying.

It’s one of more than 500 incidents of account suspensions, content removals, shadow banning and other forms of platform enforcement that Repro Uncensored has recorded in the first half of 2026 alone – more than double the total documented across all of 2025. The pattern of who is impacted is undeniable: reproductive health organizations, LGBTQI+ groups, artists, educators, cultural institutions and civil society organizations.

This isn’t just content moderation.
It’s a man-made system deciding, again and again, whose voices get amplified, whose are buried, and ultimately who gets to shape public discourse. Gender equity is impossible under a systemically censored algorithm. That’s why we also testified in Strasbourg this week. We’re no strangers to taking this fight, among others, into the halls of power. We’ve spent plenty of time on Capitol Hill in the US. But Meta doesn’t stop at borders, so neither can the people challenging it. As an independent feminist media organization, if the conversation is happening in Washington, we’ll be there. If it’s happening in Strasbourg, we’ll be there too.

We joined Alexandra Geese MEP, Repro Uncensored, Abortion Dream Team, Josie Margolis, Erika Lust and other advocates at the European Parliament to ask if platforms have become the unelected gatekeepers of public discourse, who is holding the gatekeepers accountable?

And Strasbourg isn’t the end of this story.
In response to the growing evidence of systemic censorship, Repro Uncensored and a coalition of affected organizations have now initiated legal action against Meta in the Netherlands. The case challenges the company’s lack of transparency, discriminatory enforcement practices and failure to uphold users’ rights under European law. The Digital Services Act mandates the respect of fundamental rights like freedom of expression and freedom of information and prescribes clear procedures and users’ rights in the case of content take-down or account blocking.

_{During a press conference at the Democracy and Digital rights Plenary at the EU Parliament, hosted by MEP Alexandra Geese, FEMINIST alongside creators and repro health accounts gave testimonies how Meta is censoring progressive social media communities.
➔ Watch the full press conference here}

In an alarming number of cases, Meta seems to be breaching these rules and throttling content that Mark Zuckerberg considers not aligned with a conservative agenda. At the same time, organized hate against women and anti-rights movements dominate many men’s feeds, driven by Meta’s own recommender systems.

While anti-rights actors spread hate, disinformation and attacks on fundamental rights to millions, it is those who protect, inform and mobilize people who are throttled, shadow banned or deplatformed. This skews power online in favor of the enemies of democracy and human rights – with Meta playing a central role. And we won’t let it continue.

🗞️