At the beginning of this month, Senate Bill 8—also known as the Heartbeat Act—went into effect in Texas, banning abortions after six weeks and exposing anyone who receives or even abets an abortion to criminal charges. What's more, the law incentivizes Texans to report neighbors who may have violated the law with a bounty of up to $10 thousand.
Because six weeks is long before the stage of fetal viability, the law is blatantly unconstitutional under the precedent set forth by Roe v. Wade. Nevertheless, the conservative Supreme Court voted not to halt the law's enforcement, leaving it in place.
A right-wing organization called Texas Right to Life has published an anonymous form that allows Texans to report people whom they suspect violated the law.
The site has been spammed with the law's critics sending in fake reports, but the organization has only doubled down.
In the video, a spokesperson for the organization says:
"Those who worship at the altar of child sacrifice tried to shut down prolifewhistleblower.com, but the site is still functioning and active and awaiting your reports and findings."
Now, one clever TikToker—Sean Black—has shared an iOS shortcut with his followers that allows people to automatically spam the sites with false reports in the hopes of inundating their system and making genuine reports harder to spot.
Watch below.
@black_madness21 Reply to @black_madness21 #texas #abortion #gregabbott
♬ original sound - Sean Black
The shortcut sends an automated report to the website every 10-15 seconds. Black said his test sent about 300 reports before the site banned his IP address.
On what motivated him to take this action, Black told Joseph Cox of VICE:
"To me the McCarthyism era tactics of turning neighbors against each other over a bill I feel is a violation of Roe V Wade is unacceptable. There are people on TikTok using their platform to educate and do their part. I believe this is me doing mine."
People were heartened to see the civil disobedience.
Black's video led some to praise the overall efforts of Gen Z, which makes up the vast majority of TikTok's biggest influencers.
The site has since enhanced its security.
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