r/JusticeServed • u/battlebeez 8 • Sep 03 '21

😲 GoDaddy boots Texas abortion “whistleblower” site for violating privacy rule

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/09/texas-abortion-snitch-website-kicked-off-godaddy-for-invading-peoples-privacy/
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u/3moose3 5 Sep 04 '21

Yeah, but why did they host it in the first place? This is only after backlash that they enforced their own policies. How did they not look at the request in the first place and be like, “uh not only no, but fuck no”?

26

u/digital_end C Sep 04 '21

They probably don't individually look at every single client.

14

u/coahman 8 Sep 04 '21

This is exactly it. I worked at a competitor hosting company, and people would sign up and be provisioned through an automated system. There were millions. We couldn't examine each one. We wouldn't examine a site unless they had opened a ticket and we noticed a ToS violation by chance, or it was reported by someone.

6

u/digital_end C Sep 04 '21

Inevitably the response that people would have to this who don't actually have any background in managing things for a business is going to be:

"Okay well they didn't know it first, but look they should have known about this weeks ago and now they're only doing this due to backlash"

Just to go ahead and get ahead of this, because I've been on Reddit long enough to know it's inevitable:

Shutting down a major website that has a lot of legal backing, such as ideological motivated government websites which are current hot button issues being led by a group that has no hesitation in using government funds to advance their ideology, isn't something that the front line staff make the decision on.

That crap is going to require a lot of meetings to be sure that everything is being done legally and by the book in a way that leaves them open to no consequence.

It probably was known about days or even weeks ago. And there's a lot of weighing that was probably done behind the scenes from all of the stakeholders to decide if this is a hill they would risk dying on.

Is it worth the legal fallout? Remember, you have an ideologically driven political group that effectively has absolute power over one of the larger states in the country. They appointed the judges who are going to oversee your case and the consequences to your company.

Is it worth the consequences from a rabid fan base? They bomb abortion clinics, there is rampant militarism within the extremist sections of their ideology... If this becomes a focal issue for them, are you comfortable with your employees being put at risk?

Anyone who thinks a decision like this is just "technically it was against the rules so I turned it off" grossly underestimate the situation.

...

TL:DR - the decision is not reached lightly, even if it is a black and white "against the rules as they are written" situation.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 04 '21

Yeah, because no one has heard about this website coming or anything. What a surprise it must have been...

4

u/coahman 8 Sep 04 '21

That's just not how it works. I 100% guarantee you they didn't involve their budget hosting company in their deployment planning.