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GoDaddy Kicks Out Texas Abortion Snitching Website From Its Service
By Mikelle Leow, 04 Sep 2021
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Photo 159900233 © Shawn Hempel | Dreamstime.com
Texas became the US state with the strictest abortion laws on September 1, declaring that any pregnancy with a detectable heartbeat inside—which normally emerges around six weeks into pregnancy—cannot go through an abortion. Even harsher is that Texas is allowing anyone living in the state to sue an abortion provider, or anyone they believe to be “aiding and abetting” abortions after that six-week period, for US$10,000.
Some doctors are skeptical of the implementation of the Texas Heartbeat Act, since fluttering can sometimes be detected early in pregnancy and it may not necessarily be a heartbeat. The legality of the bill is still being debated, but the Supreme Court is letting it go into effect while waiting for a full decision to be made.
Following these changes, long-running anti-abortion group Texas Right to Life launched an iffy website, called prolifewhistleblower.com, that invites Texans to anonymously offer tips on people they suspect have performed an abortion after the six-week window, or “aids or abets” them.
“Any Texan can bring a lawsuit against an abortionist or someone aiding and abetting an abortion after six weeks,” the site details. “If these individuals are proved to be violating the law, they have to pay a fine of at least US$10,000.”
Internet users began a crusade against the site, and many flooded the tip line with fake information; others went so far as to post Shrek-themed adult content, reports AFP. The unwanted traffic drove the site to set up CAPTCHA protections, which, as you can imagine, weren’t that helpful.
go to prolifewhistleblower .com and fill out the anonymous form to “help enforce” the TX heartbeat act pic.twitter.com/CGLklBEupR
— zuzu (@poopoozuzu) September 2, 2021
Okay. Call to action. Let’s crash https://t.co/yyh0TSGQP0 pic.twitter.com/tRt2XEwUs4
— Mueller, She Wrote (@MuellerSheWrote) September 2, 2021
On Twitter, users threatened to boycott GoDaddy for hosting the website.
The internet hosting provider was prompt to respond that the whistleblowing site breaches its rules, which prohibit the violation of “the privacy or publicity rights of another User or any other person or entity, or [the breaching of] any duty of confidentiality that you owe to another User or any other person or entity.”
“We have informed prolifewhistleblower.com they have 24 hours to move to another provider for violating our terms of service,” spokesperson Dan C. Race told the New York Times. During this time, visitors reported difficulties with using the site.
Texas Right to Life’s communications director Kimberlyn Schwartz said the group would not be deterred by the backlash. “We will not be silenced,” said Schwartz. “We are not afraid of the mob. We will not back down.”
A quick lookup by DesignTAXI found that the website has now moved to Epik Holdings, an American domain registrar known for readily hosting far-right, or extremist, websites often denied by other internet service providers.
Entering the site is still tricky, though, as there’s a limit to how many “global requests” are made per minute “for crawlers or humans.”
I've been keeping that hotline rather busy today. Join me, won't you? https://t.co/4VxWwwW5Ci pic.twitter.com/h2ihbcevOI
— Mrs. Betty Bowers (@BettyBowers) September 2, 2021
[via Gizmodo,The New York Times and The Washington Post, cover photo 159900233 © Shawn Hempel | Dreamstime.com]
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