December 28, 2024
After experiencing a "permanent ban" on TikTok, pro-choice activist group Ruth Sent Us was back on the platform advocating for demonstrations in front of Supreme Court justices' homes.

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Days after experiencing a “permanent ban” on TikTok, pro-choice activist group Ruth Sent Us was back on the platform advocating for demonstrations in front of Supreme Court justices’ homes.

“They simply restored the account with no notice or explanation, and we found out from followers who noticed and messaged the backup account,” a spokesperson for Ruth Sent Us told Fox News Digital in a Twitter message.

The group has been the tip of the spear in organizing demonstrations following the leak of the draft decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which indicates the Supreme Court is poised to overturn 50 years of federal abortion protections established by Roe v. Wade. Ruth Sent Us has urged protests at Catholic and Evangelical churches and advocated for regular marches to the homes of some Supreme Court justices.

On Saturday, the group posted from a “back up” TikTok account that it had been permanently banned for violating “community guidelines” but did not provide any explanation of what posts allegedly went against the platform’s guidelines. The post included a screenshot from TikTok stating that the account had been removed permanently, and the group’s page showed a message stating that the account did not exist. Several days later, the account was back online with no explanation.

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“GREAT NEWS: our TikTok @ruthsent which was ‘permanently banned’ due to mass reporting is back up due to mass appeals!” Ruth Sent Us tweeted Monday. “There’s more of us than them. Take that, haters!”

Woman dressed in a Handmaid's Tale costume takes part in a pro-abortion rights protest outside of the U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington, U.S., Oct. 4, 2021. 

Woman dressed in a Handmaid’s Tale costume takes part in a pro-abortion rights protest outside of the U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington, U.S., Oct. 4, 2021.  (REUTERS/Leah Millis)

TikTok’s community guidelines state that the platform will remove any posts that violate community guidelines and says, “Individuals are notified of our decisions and can appeal them if they believe no violation has occurred.”

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“We will temporarily or permanently ban accounts and/or users that are involved in severe or repeated on-platform violations; we may also consider actions on other platforms and offline behavior in these decisions,” the guidelines state.

Among the broad spectrum of prohibited activities, TikTok says incitement to violence, bullying or sharing personal information like home addresses is not allowed on the platform. 

TikTok did not respond to Fox News’ requests for comment.

Ruth Sent Us told Fox News that many comments and individual posts had been taken down from TikTok. 

“We have had a long series of comments and TikToks taken down due to ‘community guideline violation’ and EVERY single one reinstated upon appeal EXCEPT one featuring bloody pants,” the spokesperson told Fox News.

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One video of demonstrators pouring apparent red paint on the crotches of their white pants still appears on Ruth Sent Us’ TikTok page, but now comes with a content warning.

TikTok has suspended several conservative accounts. PragerU, a conservative educational organization founded by political commentator Dennis Prager, said last year that TikTok “has permanently banned PragerU TWICE from its platform for ‘multiple violations’ of its community guidelines.” Judicial Watch’s Tom Fitton also garnered a permanent ban.

Photo credit: AP

Photo credit: AP

Ruth Sent Us, named for former Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, was criticized for “doxxing” after the group posted a map on May 5 that marked the location of the six justices appointed by Republican presidents.

But Ruth Sent Us insists that it never doxxed anyone because the map used geolocation data for the pins, which identified the Virginia and Maryland homes of the six justices, but was not based on the street addresses for each justice. The “Extremist Justices” map was created by Vigil for Democracy, which is among a constellation of activist groups urging various protests and boycotts in response to the Supreme Court’s possible overturn of Roe.

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The group has also urged disruptions of Catholic masses, and after multiple Washington, D.C.-area churches released statements of concern, Ruth Sent Us responded on Twitter: “Stuff your rosaries and your weaponized prayer. We will remain outraged after this weekend, so keep praying. We’ll be burning the Eucharist to show our disgust for the abuse Catholic Churches have condoned for centuries.”

Ruth Sent Us demonstrations frequently feature women in red cloaks and white bonnets — a reference to Margaret Atwood’s novel and Hulu show “The Handmaid’s Tale,” which depicts a dystopian future in which abortion is illegal and women are treated as sex slaves and forced to marry and bear children against their will.

In the weeks since the draft Dobbs decision leaked, numerous protests around the country have sprung up in an effort to push for abortion rights. This week, Ruth Sent Us released a weekly schedule for demonstrating outside the justices homes. On Wednesdays, the group meets to march in front of the homes of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh. On Thursdays, they go to Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s house, and Fridays are for Justice Clarence Thomas.

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Following the mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, Saturday, Ruth Sent Us released a call to march to the home of Thomas, who is Black, to protest “white supremacy.”

“Speaking of outrage, we must call out the upholders of white supremacy, even if it’s INTERNALIZED white supremacy, like [Candace Owens], [Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C.], or Clarence Thomas,” Ruth Sent us said in a tweet. “The GOP is the party of white supremacy.”