Source: Boston Herald
Following the overturn of the Roe v. Wade by the US Supreme Court, users on TikTok have come up with their own form of retaliation. As this new ruling puts a range of limitations to the access of abortion in various states in the country, TikTokers are sharing personal information of the judges.
Mainly, Roe v. Wade assured the constitutional rights of women in the United States to the procedure of abortions. However, Justice Samuel Alito along with the other members of the Supreme Court provided states the power to legislate abortions at a state level. Prior to this, people seeking this service had full autonomy to terminate a pregnancy while still at the first trimester. Moreover, they got some state influences in case of abortion if it were the second or third trimesters.
In a draft of an opinion which was dated February 10, Justice Alito noted how the court held that ‘Roe and Casey must be overruled.’ He added how it was ‘time to heed the Constitution,’ and go back to topics of abortion to the ‘elected representatives’ of the people.
“It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.”
Currently, various users are visibly making posts featuring videos that depict Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, as well as Justice Amy Coney Barrett. Along with it, what looks like private information like details of credits cards such as its security code, number and expiration dates.
Essentially, these posted videos are just slideshows of the pictures of the judges with a text on top of their faces encircled by a transparent red box, in a possibly attempt to hide it past the platform’s algorithm. However, the validity of the information but outlets found proof of users commenting ‘It worked!’ on the posts. Some other videos include the personal residential addresses of the judges overturning the decision.
Though some of the posts were just made, the information is already publicly known as protestors went on to march to Justice Alito’s resident. This was following the leak of the anti-abortion draft opinion from May this year. Additionally, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh witnessed groups of protestors outside their homes.
In a statement, TikTok stated that it cannot stop doxxing of the Justices as their policies do not put any prohibition to the subject of abortion. Additionally, they stated how they expect users of the platform to follow ‘Community Guidelines’ applying to everyone equally on the site. TikTok specified how they have absolutely against such content, and would ‘remove content’ that contain ‘personally identifiable information.’
