Texas site asking for anonymous tips on abortion providers is down after companies refuse to host it

A site set up by Texas Right to Life to let people anonymously snitch on friends and neighbors who helped someone obtain an abortion has run into trouble — not just with online activists but a series of web hosting companies.

Since the anti-abortion group launched the site ProLifeWhistleblower.com last month, it's become a target for hacktivists who have bombarded it with fake tips.

Then, over the weekend, the site entered a new world of shit, ping-ponging between web hosts who said its mission violated their terms of service.

In case you haven't been following, the site's mission appears to be collecting names of people it can target with lawsuits for providing abortions six weeks after an egg is fertilized. Texas' newly enacted abortion ban empowers pretty much anyone to file a lawsuit against a person they think facilitated a woman's abortion in volition of the rule — from a doctor to the Uber driver who dropped her off at the clinic.

ProLifeWhistleblower.com went dark Friday after web host GoDaddy ejected the site from its servers, citing privacy concerns, ArsTechnica reports. A second host, Digital Ocean, also booted the site before it ended up on Epik, an entity known for hosting far-right and white supremacist sites such as Parler and 8Chan, according to ArsTechnica.

"But even Epik wasn’t cool with outing people for exercising their rights — or former rights — under Roe v. Wade," New York Magazine's Intelligencer site now reports.

So, as of Tuesday afternoon, the URL ProLifeWhistleblower.com routes back to Texas Right to Life's homepage, where there's no area to input anonymous tips.

When contacted about its hosting woes, Texas Right to Life spokeswoman Kimberlyn Schwartz responded via email that the group is "exploring various long-term plans for the domain."

She declined to answer an inquiry whether Texas Right to Life's leadership is concerned about its brief hosting by Epik, given the host's association with extremist groups. She did respond with a heaping dose of whataboutism, however, referencing Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger's support of eugenics.

"I look forward to seeing those facts in your story," Schwartz noted, tacking on a smiley-face emoji for good measure.

Sanger died 55 years ago, and Planned Parenthood denounces her belief in eugenics on its own website.

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