GoDaddy Removes The Daily Stormer From Server After Controversial Coverage of Violence at the Unite the Right Rally

GoDaddy, one of the largest domain registrar services on the web, has announced that it will no longer host the white supremacist website The Daily Stormer. The comapny's announcement came amidst the public outcry against the neo-Nazi news site's coverage of the deadly vehicular rampage that took place during the Unite The Right Rally in Charlottesville, Virginia this past weekend, which left at least one woman dead and 19 counter-protesters injured.

The social media backlash against The Daily Stormer, and by association, its web hosting service GoDaddy, began shortly after the death of Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old Charlottesville resident who was fatally run over by a car while counter-protesting the alt-right rally on Saturday, when The Daily Stormer published an article smearing the victim using a series of sexist and derogatory epithets. The next day, GoDaddy responded to the outcry against The Daily Stormer with a statement revealing that it would cease hosting the publication's domain on the grounds of violating the terms of service, as the article in question was deemed to incite violence and hate speech.

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 (@GoDaddy) August 14, 2017

In another email statement given to TechCrunch, GoDaddy further stated that "if no action is taken after 24 hours, we will cancel the service. Given this latest article comes on the immediate heels of a violent act, we believe this type of article could incite additional violence, which violates our terms of service.”

Picture of Heather Heyer, the activist killed at the 2017 Unite the Right Rally.

After being dropped by GoDaddy, The Daily Stormer tried to re-register its domain with Google, though its attempt to find a new host was promptly rejected by the company on the same grounds. Then this morning, a peculiar bulletin allegedly posted on behalf of the hacktivist collective Anonymous covered the home page of the troubled white supremacist news site, which proclaimed that the group has taken control of the site in a vendetta against the events that unfolded over the weekend.

“THIS SITE IS NOW UNDER THE CONTROL OF ANONYMOUS. WE HAVE TAKEN THIS SITE IN THE NAME OF HEATHER HEYER A VICTIM OF WHITE SUPREMACIST TERRORISM. FOR TOO LONG THE DAILY STORMER AND ANDREW ANGLIN HAVE SPEWED THEIR PUTRID HATE ON THIS SITE. THAT WILL NOT BE HAPPENING ANYMORE."

However Anonymous has not confirmed the hack and later claimed no responsibility in a series of tweets. "Warning to our followers: We cannot confirm dailystormer was indeed hacked," said Anonymous in a tweet.

Warning to our followers: We cannot confirm dailystormer was indeed hacked. Remain cautious. #OpDomesticTerrorism #Anonymous

— Anonymous 🏴 (@AnonyInfo) August 14, 2017

We find claim that it took a "UNITED FORCE OF ELITE HACKERS" to hack a CMS run by amateurs incredibly amusing.

— Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) August 14, 2017

If goal of Daily Stormer was to get us to celebrate a BS claim, it backfired. Seriously, suck less.

— Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) August 14, 2017

As for Heyer, an anti-racist activist and the sole victim of the vehicular attack carried out by white supremacist James Alex Fields, many sympathizers and supporters of the cause paid their respect by raising more than $225,000 in just about 24 hours on GoFundMe.