An elderly pro-life activist is suing Google after the tech giant suddenly shut down her account without any prior warning and without giving her a chance to save her data.
A pro-life activist in Florida, Trudy Perez-Poveda, is taking on Google after being abruptly deplatformed from Gmail following a pro-life event announcement. With the help of the Thomas More Society, she's suing for her access and data, claiming the… https://t.co/fihi7Qds3D
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Trudy Perez-Poveda, 76, has had her Google account since 2012, but it was abruptly shut down in September 2023 after she sent out an email to members of Family For Life — a pro-life group she volunteers with — about a planned Mass outside of an abortion clinic in Jacksonville, Florida.
Less than an hour after Perez-Poveda sent out the email, Google sent her a notification informing her that her account had been suspended. No explanation for the decision was given. Perez-Poveda spent the next ten days communicating back and forth with Google, which initially appeared to be leaning toward restoring her service. However, the final decision from the far-left tech giant was that Perez-Poveda’s account would be permanently disabled for violating Google’s acceptable use policy. Google still refused to give her an actual reason for the ban, providing vague responses claiming that they could not provide the exact policy that she supposedly violated for security reasons.
Perez-Poveda has since filed a lawsuit against Google using Florida’s deplatforming law, which was recently allowed to take effect after a Supreme Court decision lifted an injunction blocking the law. Perez-Poveda’s lawsuit is believed to be the first of its kind under this new law.
#Thread @GovRonDeSantis Announcing Steps The State Of Florida Will Take To Deal With Big Tech
"These platforms have played an increasingly decisive role in elections, and have negatively impacted Americans who dissent from orthodoxies favored by the Big Tech Cartel." 1/ pic.twitter.com/Z0npEPL3c9
— The Columbia Bugle 🇺🇸 (@ColumbiaBugle) February 2, 2021
With the help of a conservative law firm, the Thomas More Society, Perez-Poveda has sued Google in Duval County Circuit Court. In a statement about the lawsuit, Thomas More Society senior counsel Matt Heffron argued that this action by Google is further evidence of the growing trend of censorship in the U.S., stating: “There is an ominous growth of censorship in this country. Large social-media companies act as a ‘digital public square,’ and play a central role in the debate of ideas.”
He also pointed out that, although Google has not provided a reason for banning his client, it is reasonable to assume that the decision was related to the company’s rabid pro-abortion stance conflicting with his client’s pro-life views, or related to religious issues.
Meanwhile, Perez-Poveda has explained that the loss of her email account has been emotionally taxing, comparing her ban to “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,” according to the lawsuit.
