Cyber scuffle: Fight over Texas abortion law moves to TikTok
FILE – This Monday, Sept. 28, 2020, file photo, shows the TikTok logo on a smartphone in Tokyo. The Chinese government has made investments in two of the nation’s most significant technology firms: ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns global video app TikTok, and Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, in a move apparently intended to bolster its sway over the nation’s flourishing technology sector. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato, File)
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HOUSTON (NewsNation Now) — The outcry over Texas’ latest abortion law has turned into an all-out online brawl with some TikTok users employing online tools to take down the whistleblower website created by the group Texas Right to Life.
The website allows users to report anyone who has an abortion in Texas after six weeks of pregnancy as well anyone who assists.
GoDaddy, the website hosting service, took down the page within hours. Rival service EPIK then picked it up.
Once the site went back up, TikTokers posted a call to arms.
They asked anyone and everyone to bombard the website with fake reports.
Sean Black, who goes by @black_madness21 on TikTok, created a bot that makes it easy to submit fake tips to a whistleblower site.
He described in a TikTok how he did it.
“What if somebody very technical, very handsome set up a bot that automatically sent the request to their website. Oh wait it was me. I did that. Unfortunately it’s not as effective as it could be. It only sends request every 10-15 seconds or so. But leave this running over night then.. (laughs).”
Texas Right to Life responded, condemning the actions of TikTok users.
“We will not be silenced. If anti-lifers want to take our website down, we’ll put it back up. No one can keep us from telling the truth. No one can stop us from saving lives. We are not afraid of the mob,” the group said in a statement.
Right now the site prolifewhistleblower.com re-directs to the Texas Right to Life website. The group says it’s exploring long-term plans for the domain.
On the TikTok side, Sean Black reported being “IP” banned, which means his clogging bot was blocked from the Texas Right to Life website.
