Florida woman sues Google for disabling her account after pro-life advocacy

Google offices in Chelsea, Manhattan, New York. / Credit: MNAphotography/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Jul 30, 2024 / 14:45 pm (CNA).

A woman in Florida is suing Google for allegedly blocking her from her account after she attempted to set up a Catholic Mass and group prayer event outside of a local abortion clinic. 

Trudy Perez-Poveda, a member of the pro-life group Family for Life (FFL), said in the lawsuit, filed last week in Florida circuit court, that in September 2023, she had sent an email to members of her Jacksonville-area pro-life group informing them of an upcoming Mass outside of an abortion clinic in the city located next to FFL’s offices.

“Approximately one hour” after sending the email, the suit says, Google allegedly suspended Perez-Poveda’s account, giving no explanation for doing so. 

After several days of Perez-Poveda’s efforts to recover her account, Google informed her that it had been “permanently disabled” for violating the company’s “acceptable use policy.” 

When pressed, Google said that for “security reasons” it could not share the reason for disabling the account, according to the lawsuit. The company further said that it could not retrieve more than a decade’s worth of data and messages from the account due to the suspension.

The Thomas More Society, a legal advocacy group, is representing Perez-Poveda in the lawsuit. The group said it had sent Google an “initial legal demand” regarding the dispute but that the company had responded with “absolute silence.”

The Florida woman said in a statement through the firm that losing the data “felt like coming home to a house, which took me 12 years to furnish with family mementos and treasures, and find it completely empty without even a note explaining why.”

Matt Heffron, a lawyer with the group, argued that 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,” Heffron said.

The lawsuit “is part of the urgent and overdue pushback against this rising tide of censorship,” Heffron said. “Nobody should be treated the way Google treated Trudy Perez. She is a delightful person: humorous, warm, peaceful, prayerful, and absolutely persistent.”

The suit seeks both preliminary and permanent injunctions against Google as well as statutory and actual damages and lawyer’s fees. 

The Catholic Code of Canon Law stipulates that Masses can be said outside of sacred places where necessity dictates; in her email, Perez-Poveda said that St. Augustine Bishop Erik Pohlmeier had granted permission to a local priest to perform the outdoor Mass.

Diocesan spokeswoman Kathleen Bagg could not immediately confirm that the bishop had approved the Mass in question, though she noted that Pohlmeier “will consider the request” for special Mass and devotional locations “on a case-by-case basis.” 

“I am aware Bishop Pohlmeier has celebrated a Mass at [the Family for Life offices], which are located next to an abortion clinic,” she said.