Together For Yes investigate page shutdown

Since raising over €500,000 for the campaign to repeal the 8th amendment in April, Together For Yes have once again sought the aid of the public. Aiming to raise €100,000 or more to help create a national social media advertisement campaign, the organisation launched their funding page on the 9th of May.

Stating on their page that they welcomed Google's decision to introduce a ban on sponsored advertisements regarding the referendum, the total amount raised would still go towards reaching out towards undecided Irish citizens and further educating them on the 8th amendment. The group raised over €72,000 in a number of hours.

Together For Yes have now revealed that the crowdfunding page was shut down for 30 minutes yesterday evening due to a DDOS.

A 'DDOS' attack (Distributed Denial of Service Attack) is the result of overloading the targeted website with endless streams of traffic in an attempt to overwhelm the servers. The traffic comes from multiple sources and is one of the most common and effective methods of crashing any website.

Our crowdfund initiative was shut down yesterday evening for 30 minutes after the company hosting the website was attacked by an unknown Irish-based entity.

— Together for Yes (@Together4yes) May 10, 2018

We are a national grassroots movement which relies on small donations from large numbers of people. Our crowdfund initiative is a core element of the manner in which we resource our campaign and therefore we would take extremely seriously any attempt to undermine it.

— Together for Yes (@Together4yes) May 10, 2018

Upon contacting CauseVox who confirmed the DDOS attack, they also discovered that other Yes crowdfunding campaigns - such as Amnesty Ireland and Terminations for Medical Reasons - were also affected and knocked offline for up to 45 minutes.

While the attack came from an Irish source, there has been no comment from any of the affected groups regarding who may have been the perpetrator. Twitter users have been speculating it came as the result of Google's ban on referendum advertising online - a decision that has hit the No side of the campaign with some force, resulting in an emergency conference yesterday afternoon.

No campaigns believe Google decision to stop carrying #8thref ads is an attempt to rig the referendum pic.twitter.com/PX0vXccHhW

— Hugh O'Connell (@oconnellhugh) May 9, 2018

It is strange that the rules of engagement have been changed in the dying weeks of the campaign. It sets a dangerous precedent for future campaigns where @google and @facebook again decide how much and what information the people have. @Savethe8thInfo #BeMyVoice #SaveThe8th pic.twitter.com/WYbRRQZmpb

— RENUA IRELAND (@RENUAIreland) May 9, 2018

Read our statement in response to the Google decision re online advertising. #LoveBothVoteNo on May 25th https://t.co/9TCnbccCOn

— LoveBoth (Official) (@loveboth8) May 10, 2018

Together For Yes have urged people to continue discussing the referendum with their family and friends as we approach the 25th of May. Despite the Google ban, they have always believed the best way to spread the word is in person and that organic growth and discussion is vital.