Shrek porn memes and tonnes of fake reports are said to have flooded Texas’ abortion whistleblower website as TikTok and Reddit users have joined a viral pro-choice online campaign against the state’s newly-enacted anti-abortion law.
The website, created by the anti-abortion NGO Texas Right to Life a month ago, purports to help enforce a new law that would punish women - and those aiding them – for aborting an embryo, as early as six weeks into pregnancy. The tipline allows people to fill in an online form reporting how they think “the law has been violated”, alongside names of a doctor or a clinic their report relates to. Whistleblowers are also able to upload any images or documents as an evidence for their anonymous tip.
As a result, if a person is found guilty of violating the law, they may be fined a minimum of $10,000.
But according to numerous TikTok clips, the system has been bombarded with hundreds of fake reports, as pro-choice activists decided to “mess with Greg Abbott’s idiots” and crash the website. As such, one video calling for the bid has gathered over 210,000 likes on TikTok alone.
Another TikToker went as far as to support the fake report with multiple “Shrek porn” images alongside a message “my wife aborted our baby 4 weeks into her pregnancy without consulting me”.
Another activist apparently created an iOS shortcut and Python script to allow any user to send thousands of reports per day, according to a TikTok clip. The Vice’s Motherboard test of the tool has indicated that it apparently has been working.
It’s unclear whether the viral effort has born a fruit, as the website has been visibly trying to repel attacks against the system, while also blocking attempts to access it from some other countries outside of the United States.
Meanwhile, a last-minute effort to block the controversial law was offset on Wednesday, when the US Supreme Court declined to sabotage the legislation in a 5-4 ruling. The law, which came into effect this week, will prohibit abortions if an embryo’s cardiac activity can already be detected with an ultrasound – something which is expected to start at around six weeks, before many women even known they are pregnant.
In June 2020, TikTokers and K-pop fans upset Donald Trump’s plans for a huge rally in Tulsa when they apparently bought hundreds of thousands of tickets for the event. Trump’s re-election campaign managers had boasted about the huge crowds they expected at the rally – but this had failed to materialise. Many believe that the TikTok campaign was at least partly to blame for that.