Texas anti-abortion group, Texas Right To Life, is in a losing battle with its attempts to create a website where vigilantes can report individuals who are violating the controversial Texas law banning abortions.

The Texas Heartbeat Act, or Senate Bill 8 (SB8), has been criticized on its merit and implementation. The new law makes all abortions after six weeks of pregnancy illegal, even in the case of incest or rape. The law goes a step further, making it illegal for anyone who helps a pregnant woman get an abortion, whether it is through counseling, offering medical support, or even driving her to get the abortion. Individuals who sue violators of the new law could stand to get a $10,000 reward. This vigilante approach has been criticized as an “abortion bounty” that pits Americans against each other all while stripping women of their reproductive rights.

GoDaddy Shuts Down Whistleblower Website

One company has stepped in to make it harder for these vigilantes to report violations of the law. As of last week, GoDaddy has successfully pulled a website that was designed to help people submit tips of suspected violators of the law.

After Texas Right to Life created the “whistleblower” website and hosted it on GoDaddy, it was taken down for violating company guidelines. “We have informed prolifewhistleblower.com they have 24 hours to move to another provider for violating our terms of service,” GoDaddy explained to the New York Times.

According to GoDaddy, the website violated “multiple provisions” include Section 5.2 which explains, “You will not collect or harvest (or permit anyone else to collect or harvest) any User Content (as defined below) or any non-public or personally identifiable information about another User or any other person or entity without their express prior written consent.”

Since being pulled, the whistleblower website has had trouble finding a home. After being pulled from GoDaddy, the site appeared to migrate to the platform Epik, a provider known to help other controversial, conservative outlets like Parler and Gab. However, since having moved to Epik, the website showed an HTTP 503 error code. According to The Verge, after not finding success on Epik, the site moved yet again to BitMitigate, a hosting platform owned by Epik. Still, visitors found another error message which informs users they have “accessed a banned URL.” Early this week, the website has since redirected users to the Texas Right Life website itself. Instead of a whistleblower website, users can now find a form that allows them to report on violators of the law.

Companies Push Back

Since the inception of this whistleblower tactic, vigilantes on the other side of the argument have emerged. After the website was launched, users have trolled the organization by submitting false violators of the law including Texas governor Gregg Abbot himself. One Tik Tok user even went as far as creating a code that would automatically generate fake reports. His code has since generated over 15,000 false tips according to the New York Times.

GoDaddy has been the latest company to stand up against the Bill, though it’s unclear if their move could be seen as discriminatory if challenged. Lyft and Uber have also taken a stand against the law by creating what they call a Driver Legal Defense Fund to pay any costs that drivers may face because of the new law.

"Drivers are never responsible for monitoring where their riders go or why," Lyft shared last week. "Imagine being a driver and not knowing if you are breaking the law by giving someone a ride. Similarly, riders never have to justify, or even share, where they are going and why.” The company adds, "Imagine being a pregnant woman trying to get to a healthcare appointment and not knowing if your driver will cancel on you for fear of breaking a law. Both are completely unacceptable."

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi joined Lyft in its efforts to cover drivers’ fees. "Drivers shouldn't be put at risk for getting people where they want to go,” Khosrowshahi tweeted last week.

Dating app Bumble has also taken a stand against the bill. Founder Whitney Wolf Herd shared that her "women-founded and women-led" company would "keep fighting against regressive laws like #SB8." Bumble has started a relief fund to help organizations that support women controlling their reproductive rights.

Likewise, Match Group, the parent company of Tinder and Hinge, has also set up a fund to help Match employees that are impacted by the law. The fund would allow those impacted to find healthcare outside of the state.