All About Interwebz: GoDaddy kicks Texas abortion “whistleblower” website off its platform

Web hosting giant GoDaddy has removed the website of an anti-abortion organization that was being used to anonymously report suspected abortions in Texas.

Owned by the Texas Right to Life group, the website prolifewhistleblower.com (which now redirects to texasrighttolife.com) was used as a platform for the public to submit tips on suspected pregnancy terminations in Texas.

GoDaddy locked the part of the prolifewhistleblower.com website that allowed users to submit anonymous tips on suspected abortions, and gave it 24 hours to find a new provider.

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The move follows a recent decision from five justices of the US Supreme Court that private citizens can sue anyone who performs, aids or abets an abortion on a fetus that has a detectable heartbeat.

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GoDaddy has yet to reply to TechRadar Pro's request for comment, but told Ars Technica: “Last night we informed prolifewhistleblower.com they have violated GoDaddy's terms of service and have 24 hours to move to a different provider.”

"The site violated multiple provisions, including, but not limited to, Section 5.2 of our terms of service."

The above-mentioned section prohibits GoDaddy sites from using the platform to "collect or harvest... non-public or personally identifiable information" without gaining prior written consent.

On its website, Texas Right of Life issued a statement saying: “Our IT team is already in process of transferring assets to another provider, and we’ll have the site restored within 24-48 hours.”

It appears the website is now being hosted by Digital Ocean, with its domain registar being the controversial firm Epik, which hit headlines earlier this year for supporting the likes of Parler.

TechRadar Pro has also reached out to the Texas Right to Life group and Digital Ocean, but both are yet to reply.

However in a statement to Ars Technica, Texas Right to Life Director of Media and Communication Kimberlyn Schwartz noted that, “We will not be silenced. If anti-Lifers want to take our website down, we’ll put it back up.”