The Texan site for denouncing abortionists was inundated with false reports

From Tiktok and Reddit, activists against the anti-abortion measure in Texas have coordinated a cyber warfare operation against a site to make allegations

The home page of the ProLifeWhistleBlower site, where you can anonymously report those who have terminated the pregnancy. In Texas, anti-abortion groups have opened a site through which to report possible violations of the new law against abortion, which prohibits the termination of pregnancy after 5 or 6 weeks from conception and provides for penalties starting from a minimum of 10 thousand dollars. What they did not expect was the reaction of tiktoker and other activists, who flooded the site with false reports. A single tiktoker sent 742 reports, all related to bogus abortions committed by Texas Governor Greg Abbott, promoter of the law.

The most restrictive US abortion law

In Texas i citizens are invited to monitor, report and report to the authorities anyone who wants to have an abortion or provide assistance to end a pregnancy. It might sound like an episode of The Handmaid's Tale, but it is instead one of the provisions of the new anti-abortion law passed in the state of Texas and entered into force this week. Known as the Texas heartbeat act, it prohibits termination of pregnancy as soon as a doctor is able to detect the heartbeat of a fetus, which usually happens within 5 to 6 weeks of conception.

However, cardiac activity can be detected even before the actual formation of a heart and, in any case, it is unable to verify that pregnancy is viable, which happens after 24 weeks. Furthermore, the new law may not only be applied in cases of serious danger to the mother's health, but does not provide for any exceptions in the case of rape or incest.

The whistleblower website

To better participate in these new surveillance activities, the anti-abortion group Right to life has opened a website called prolifewhistleblower.com (literally the site of whistleblowers for vita), which allows users to make anonymous reports on anyone who has terminated a pregnancy or has given assistance in the practice. The reporting form also includes a section where you can upload photos or videos that prove the truthfulness of the "tip". However, groups that support the right to abortion (called pro-choice) have decided to use the site in another way, bombarding it with false reports.

The online boycott

As reported by TheInsider website, the first to encourage pro-choice users to undertake this cyber guerilla action was the Yellowhammer fund, which provides assistance to those seeking support for abortion in Alabama, which in 2019 has adopted an equally restrictive law. Before the law came into force, the link to the anti-abortion site was posted on the fund's Facebook page with the caption "What a shame it would be if people abused this site for reports". Since that moment, the shares have multiplied exponentially, as have the calls for boycott made mainly on TikTok and on the Reddit platform.

Activist and developer Sean Black has created a program capable of sending automatic reports every 15 seconds, then releasing a link with which to use the tool. According to his testimony, reported by the Guardian, over 20 thousand people have already clicked on his link. From Reddit and TikTok the guerrilla has also moved on to Twitter where users have continued to encourage boycott actions and make suggestions.

Kimberlyn Schwartz, director of communication of Right to life, confirmed to SpectrumNews that the site is been flooded with "fake hints", branded as a "ddos attack" (which involve the automatic sending of multiple requests to a website, in order to overcome its ability to manage them and therefore prevent it from functioning). However, according to the Guardian, the site appears to have been able to deal with the influx of false reports and stay online, at least for now.


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Topics

Abortion Internet rights United States Tiktok Twitter globalData.fldTopic = "Abortion , Rights, Internet, United States, Tiktok, Twitter "

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