GoDaddy pulls the plug on Texas anti-abortion reporting website
When the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 on Wednesday to let SB 8 go into effect, there was a considerable uproar – rightfully stirring up feelings of outrage and abject terror as people began to realize how draconian the law really is and how quickly it could transform modern American into a dystopian hellscape. Of course, it also stirred up the usual #dosomething and doom and gloom crowd on social media that worked hard to convince us that all hope was lost and somehow the GOP was on fast track to getting away with everything yet again. This all happened in spite of the fact that not only did President Biden come out forcefully against the SCOTUS ruling and encourage the Justice Department to look into it, but Nancy Pelosi also spoke about voting to codify Roe v. Wade as law once Congress got back from recess.
In the time since Wednesday, a number of online activists managed to crash a website for the anti-abortion group Texas’ Right to Life, which supported SB 8 and allows citizens to provide tips on anyone helping women get an abortion. After flooding the site with fake tips, the website was cut off by its hosting provider, GoDaddy for having violated its terms of service – which specifically includes a rule against providing personally identifiable information about other users. The site now has 24 hours to find a new home. Whether or not it comes back remains to be seen, but it’s an embarrassing roadblock that supporters of this law were obviously hoping to avoid.
We shouldn’t hold any illusions to how terrible these people can be – but it’s a far cry from saying we should just surrender, which they’re hoping most of us do in the first place. It’s likely this won’t be the only embarrassing pitfall that SB 8 will have to deal with – and it’s things like this that make right wingers look weak and fragile – the worst sins they could be guilty of in the eyes of voters. Whoever you are and wherever you are, don’t buy into the doom and gloom – fight back however you can and make sure we vote them out in droves in 2021 and 2022.
James Sullivan is the assistant editor of Brain World Magazine and an advocate of science-based policy making