Pro-choice people flood Texas abortion whistleblower site with Shrek memes, fake reports, and porn

Texas legislators have found a way around Roe vs Wade to ban access to most abortions. While Democrats decide their plan of action to counter the move, pro-choice people aren't waiting around. Texas had created a website encouraging people to report violators of the law. Users on TikTok and Reddit created a movement to spam the website with Shrek memes and porn. The law, SB8, enables citizens to file a lawsuit against those who "aid and abet" abortions. As we reported earlier, referred to as the 'sue thy neighbor' law, it would place a $10,000 "bounty" on abortion providers and anyone else who helps an individual obtain an abortion past about six weeks gestation. 

One activist has created a script to flood the Texas website with fabricated data, according to a video posted on Tiktok by the developer, reported Vice News. The user goes by Sean Black and has also created an iOS shortcut that makes it easier for non-technical activists to spam the website as well. "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," said Black in an email.

Black believes automation is the best way to spam the website. First, Black posted a video with a script sending a request to the Texas website every 10-15 seconds. In a second video, he showed a script sending 300 requests at the time of the upload but then the site blocked his IP address. He has made the link accessible on his Linktree page and more than 8,000 people have clicked on both the links combined. 

To work around the IP ban, Black created an iOS shortcut so anyone with an iPhone run the scripts and spam the site. Black says all you need to do is visit the Texas website, click the Share button, and then click on the shortcut. Apart from filing an anonymous report, they can also upload images for proof on the website that was launched a month ago. One TikToker claimed to have uploaded 742 fake reports of Greg Abbott getting illegal abortions. Black believes using the script will also key in realistic information, making it harder for them to filter out what they believe are real reports. After it was spammed, the website introduced captcha in an attempt to stop automated submissions. Black says he will come up with a solution for it. Texas also blocked connections from countries outside of the United States. It will certainly take a good while to separate the credible claims because many people are manually posting complaints.  

There have since been reports of Florida looking to implement the same law in the state. The recently added conservative Supreme court judges failed to block the law with a vote of 5-4, effectively circumventing Roe vs. Wade.  Justice Sonia Sotomayor came down hard on the Supreme Court's refusal to block a law in Texas banning abortions in almost all circumstances. "The Court's order is stunning," wrote Justice Sotomayor, reported Newsweek. "Presented with an application to enjoin a flagrantly unconstitutional law engineered to prohibit women from exercising their constitutional rights and evade judicial scrutiny, a majority of Justices have opted to bury their heads in the sand. The Court should not be so content to ignore its constitutional obligations to protect not only the rights of women but also the sanctity of its precedents and of the rule of law," she wrote.