By Kipp Jones September 4, 2021 at 4:40pm
The web hosting company GoDaddy has taken down a website created in July by a pro-life group based in Texas.
Texas Right to Light said in a Friday news release that it was told by GoDaddy on Thursday that the website, ProLifeWhistleblower.com, would be pulled from the internet in 24 hours.
“GoDaddy emailed the Texas Right to Life IT team Thursday evening alleging we violated the terms of service. They neglected to specify how,” the group said.
GoDaddy confirmed the alleged violation and said in an email that ProLifeWhistleblower.com had “24 hours to move to a different provider,” according to The New York Times.
The site was removed from the internet at 8 p.m. on Friday.
ProLifeWhistleblower.com allowed citizens to report violations of Texas’ Heartbeat Act, which bans abortions in the state after a fetal heartbeat is detected.
“Importantly, lawsuits regarding such infringements cannot be brought against the woman seeking an abortion but against those who commit the abortion or aid and abet,” Texas Right to Life added.
The Supreme Court this week refused to block the law from going into effect, drawing the ire of pro-abortion advocates across the country.
Do you support Texas’ Heartbeat Act?
In the wake of the ruling, some activists targeted ProLifeWhistleblower.com in an attempt to overwhelm its servers.
The Times reported that “hacktivists” organized on TikTok to flood the website with fake tips.
“We knew this would happen, and we were prepared,” said Kimberlyn Schwartz, director of media and communication for Texas Right to Life.
“Activists have been trying to spam and take down the site for a week and failed.”
Texas Right to Life said that when the campaign failed, “keyboard warriors harassed GoDaddy to take down our site.” Twitter users called for a boycott of GoDaddy, according to the Times.
Schwartz said the pro-life group would not be deterred.
“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,” Schwartz said.
“Anti-Life activists hate us because we’re winning. Hundreds of babies are being saved from abortion right now because of Texas Right to Life, and these attacks don’t change that,” she added.
ProLifeWhistleblower.com is expected to be back up with a new web host by Sunday evening, Texas Right to Life said.
Johnathan “Kipp” Jones has worked as a reporter, an editor and a producer in radio, television and digital media. He is a proud husband and father.
Johnathan “Kipp” Jones has worked as an editor and producer in radio and television. He is a proud husband and father.