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A website that allowed people to report violations of Texas’ extreme new anti-abortion law has been taken down for a second time after its new web host said it violated its terms of service.
Anti-abortion lobbying group Texas Right to Life had set up the site ProLifeWhistleblower.com to allow people to report on those providing or receiving abortions in violation of the state’s law that bans all abortions past six weeks of pregnancy.
It went into effect last week after the Supreme Court upheld the law.
Quickly, however, the site ran into trouble, and on Thursday its original web host GoDaddy informed the group that its abortion tip function violated its terms of service, and gave it 24 hours to find a new host.
Now, Epik, the web hosting company that Texas Right to Life turned to as an alternative has also said the site also violates its terms of service, and is refusing to host it.
ProLifeWhistleblower.com, (pictured) a website designed to collect anonymous tips about people receiving or performing abortions in Texas, was taken down for the second time after its new web host violated its terms of service
The URL now redirects to the main page for Texas Right to Life, the lobbying group behind the anonymous tip page
As of Saturday it appeared to have gone offline, and now redirect’s to Texas Right to Life’s main webpage.
Epik bills itself as willing to host websites other tech companies have refused to such as 8chan and Gab, but ProLifeWhistleblower.com appeared to go too far for the company.
Epik, the web host that Texas Right to Life turned to after its initial provider declined to host the page has said its anonymous tip function violates its terms of service
On Saturday the company informed Texas Right to Life that the group had violated its terms of service for collecting private information about third parties, The Washington Post reported.
Epik never hosted the site since it was booted off GoDaddy, company general counsel Daniel Prince told the outlet, and said it would no longer work with Texas Right to Life if it continued to try and collect people’s private information.
Epik did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The group, however, vows to press forward, ‘We’re exploring various long-term plans for the domain registration,’ Right to Life spokeswoman Kimberlyn Schwartz told the Post, adding that it soon hoped to resume collecting anonymous tips.
The site’s initial host, GoDaddy, had also said ProLifeWhistleblower.com violated its terms of service
Leen Garza participates in a protest against the six-week abortion ban at the Capitol in Austin, Texas, on Wednesday. The law bans abortions in the state past the sixth week of pregnancy
Texas’ law deputizes enforcement to citizens, who would be able to sue abortion providers for its violation.
A plaintiff who successfully sues would be entitled to a $10,000 cash reward, or bounty, which would be paid by the defendant, according to the law.
The mere threat of litigation has prompted abortion clinics in Texas to immediately limit their abortion services in compliance with the law.
Even before problems emerged with its web hosts, ProLifeWhistleblower.com had run into trouble last week after it was inundated with with pornographic images, Shrek memes, and other trolling messages designed to flood it with erroneous tips, according to MySA.com.
Early on last week the site ran into trouble when it was inundated with fake tips, which included vulgarities, memes and jokes
Another trolling message that was submitted to the tip line is seen above
‘I’m definitely sending in pictures of my menstrual cup dump outs when I get the opportunity in a couple weeks,’ one Reddit user vowed.
Others have pledged to send photos of their fecal matter and other unsavory images.
One social media user posted a screenshot of her ‘tip’ in which she accused Heidi Cruz, the wife of Senator Ted Cruz, of having a ‘stomach pooch’ which disappeared after ‘she went to Mexico during our state’s blizzard.’
Cruz, the Republican from Texas, flew to Cancun while his state was in the throes of a massive power outage caused by a spell of extremely cold weather last winter.
Other social media users submitted fake tips while lambasting Gov. Greg Abbott and other top GOP officials in the state.
