Google cuts ties with neo-Nazi site for ‘inciting violence’
The hits keep coming for the Daily Stormer.
Google has joined web hosting company GoDaddy in revoking the domain registration of the neo-Nazi website after it posted an article mocking an anti-hate crusader killed in Charlottesville.
GoDaddy announced late Sunday on Twitter that it had given the Daily Stormer 24 hours to move its domain to another provider because it had violated GoDaddy’s terms of service.
The alt-right-linked site helped organize the weekend rally in Virginia that exploded in violence that culminated in the death of 32-year-old Heather Heyer, who was struck by a car allegedly driven by a man with white nationalist views.
The Daily Stormer moved its registration to Alphabet Inc.’s Google Domains, which offers transfers through an automated online process that the internet company says takes about 20 minutes or less to complete, Reuters reported.
The domain was registered with Google a little before 11 a.m. EST and the company announced plans to revoke it at 1:56 p.m. EST, according to a person familiar with the revocation.
“We don’t want our services to incite violence,” the person said.
It was not immediately clear when Google’s move would take effect.
GoDaddy, the world’s largest internet domain seller, has been criticized for hosting a domain name for a website “dedicated to spreading anti-Semitism, neo-Nazism, and white nationalism,” according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
“We informed The Daily Stormer that they have 24 hours to move the domain to another provider, as they have violated our terms of service,” GoDaddy tweeted late Sunday.
Meanwhile, Cloudflare, a private company that also provides internet services to the Daily Stormer, declined to say if it was looking at joining GoDaddy and Google in severing ties.
“Cloudflare is aware of the concerns that have been raised over some sites that have used our network. We find the content on some of these sites repugnant,” the company said in a statement.
“While our policy is to not comment on any user specifically, we are cooperating with law enforcement in any investigation,” it added.