Posted on Sep 17, 2021
How TikTokers took down a Texas anti-abortion site
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When the strictest abortion law in the US went into effect in Texas, teenagers took matters into their own hands. They took to social media to ask people to clog an anti-abortion website with fake tips about offenders.
They managed to bring the site down temporarily, but now the anti-abortion webpage, run by Texas Right to Life, is facing other challenges.
They managed to bring the site down temporarily, but now the anti-abortion webpage, run by Texas Right to Life, is facing other challenges.
How TikTokers took down a Texas anti-abortion site
Posted from bbc.com
Social Media
Abortion
State of Texas
Law
Internet
Posted >1 y ago
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I heard from a reliable source that abbott was one of those that was reported!!
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
"After a Texas law restricting abortion went into effect on Wednesday, the state’s largest anti-abortion group publicized a website that invited citizens to inform on the law’s violators.
The website, prolifewhistleblower.com, which was set up by the group Texas Right to Life, was designed to help carry out the new law. That’s because the law places enforcement not in the hands of state officials but with private citizens, who are deputized to sue anyone who performs or aids an abortion in violation of the law.
Tips about the law’s potential offenders quickly flooded into the website, which features an online form so people can anonymously submit reports of those who are illegally obtaining or facilitating abortions.
But some of the tips were a little unexpected.
Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas, who was a leading proponent of the abortion law, was a violator, according to some of the tips. The fictional characters from Marvel’s Avengers were also apparently seeking abortions, the reports said. Other tips did not point to individuals but instead contained copies of the entire script to the 2007 animated film “Bee Movie.”
The reports, which were obviously bogus, were the work of activists on TikTok, programmers, and Twitter and Reddit users who said they wanted to ensnarl the site’s administrators in fabricated data.
Their digital dissent was part of a wave of reaction against the Texas law, which bans most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy and makes the state the most restrictive in the nation in terms of access to abortion services. President Biden said Thursday that the situation “unleashes unconstitutional chaos” against women.
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On TikTok, a developer with the alias Sean Black said he had developed a script that automatically generated fake reports to the prolifewhistleblower.com site. After the site tried to block him, the developer released a shortcut that allowed anyone with an iPhone or iPad to automatically create a fake report using a randomly generated Texas ZIP code.
“What if somebody very technical, very handsome, set up a bot that automatically sent the request to their website,” the developer said on TikTok. “Oh wait. It was me. I did that.”
The developer, who declined to provide his real name for fear of retaliation, said in an interview that more than 7,200 people had clicked on his script and that more than 8,450 people had clicked on the shortcut as of Thursday afternoon, based on data from Linktree, a service that helps people manage their website content. "...
"After a Texas law restricting abortion went into effect on Wednesday, the state’s largest anti-abortion group publicized a website that invited citizens to inform on the law’s violators.
The website, prolifewhistleblower.com, which was set up by the group Texas Right to Life, was designed to help carry out the new law. That’s because the law places enforcement not in the hands of state officials but with private citizens, who are deputized to sue anyone who performs or aids an abortion in violation of the law.
Tips about the law’s potential offenders quickly flooded into the website, which features an online form so people can anonymously submit reports of those who are illegally obtaining or facilitating abortions.
But some of the tips were a little unexpected.
Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas, who was a leading proponent of the abortion law, was a violator, according to some of the tips. The fictional characters from Marvel’s Avengers were also apparently seeking abortions, the reports said. Other tips did not point to individuals but instead contained copies of the entire script to the 2007 animated film “Bee Movie.”
The reports, which were obviously bogus, were the work of activists on TikTok, programmers, and Twitter and Reddit users who said they wanted to ensnarl the site’s administrators in fabricated data.
Their digital dissent was part of a wave of reaction against the Texas law, which bans most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy and makes the state the most restrictive in the nation in terms of access to abortion services. President Biden said Thursday that the situation “unleashes unconstitutional chaos” against women.
Dig deeper into the moment.
Special offer: Subscribe for $1 a week.
On TikTok, a developer with the alias Sean Black said he had developed a script that automatically generated fake reports to the prolifewhistleblower.com site. After the site tried to block him, the developer released a shortcut that allowed anyone with an iPhone or iPad to automatically create a fake report using a randomly generated Texas ZIP code.
“What if somebody very technical, very handsome, set up a bot that automatically sent the request to their website,” the developer said on TikTok. “Oh wait. It was me. I did that.”
The developer, who declined to provide his real name for fear of retaliation, said in an interview that more than 7,200 people had clicked on his script and that more than 8,450 people had clicked on the shortcut as of Thursday afternoon, based on data from Linktree, a service that helps people manage their website content. "...
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