UPDATE 08:00 am: To whomever provided the pressure, we thank you. Now let's see how they "fix" it so that it's still possible to turn in your neighbor.
The Missouri Attorney General’s office launched an online form for “Transgender Center Concerns” in late March, inviting those who’ve witnessed “troubling practices” at clinics that provide gender-affirming care to submit tips. The site didn’t ask users to name patients or healthcare providers, but encouraged users to complete the form “in as much detail as possible.”
But after days of TikTok and Twitter users spamming the site with gibberish, the tip line has been removed from the Missouri government site entirely. Instead of the online form, the link to the tip line now says that the page no longer exists.
Madeline Sieren, press secretary for Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, blamed “far left activists” for breaking the site. She said the tip line is down temporarily.
[...]
Social media users on TikTok, Twitter and Tumblr ensured that Bailey’s office would have plenty of evidence to sift through for the investigation, flooding the site with fake complaints and other ephemera.
When the online form first launched, it lacked a CAPTCHA, which savvy Twitter users quickly used to their advantage by using bots to spam the site. Users also employed a generator to churn out fake names and fake Missouri addresses. Others just dumped text into the complaint form, ranging from the entire script of the “Bee Movie,” to Billy May’s OxiClean sales pitch, to Walter White’s introductory monologue in “Breaking Bad.”
[...]
The tip form added a CAPTCHA on Thursday, but that alone wasn’t enough to deter the trolls. The form was removed from the attorney general’s site by Friday morning.
[...]
Relentless trolling has become a form of protest against draconian surveillance.
[...]
The tip line is part of a larger “investigation” that Missouri’s attorney general is using to target the state’s trans community. Earlier this month, Bailey announced an emergency directive that severely restricts access to gender-affirming care in the state.
[...]
The emergency rule cited a disputed whistleblower report alleging that a transgender youth center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital rushed patients into gender-affirming care without informed consent.
The ACLU of Missouri argues that Bailey’s emergency rule is based on debunked claims, not scientific evidence.
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