This Sunday, the web hosting company GoDaddy announced that it would be cutting off service to one of the oldest white supremacist websites on the Internet.
GoDaddy made the move after blogger and LGBT rights advocate Amy Siskind tweeted a screenshot of a recent article posted to the website that attacked Heather Heyer, the woman killed in Charlottesville this Saturday when Alt-Right rally attendee James Alex-Fields Jr. rammed into her with his vehicle, injuring dozens of others.
The article, titled “Heather Heyer: Woman Killed in Road Rage Incident was a Fat, Childless 32-Year-Old Slut,” was shared around various social media circles and generated outrage among those already in shock from her killing.
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
But just around the same time GoDaddy made its announcement, someone claiming to be part of the hacktivist group Anonymous claimed to have hijacked the site, posting a featured article with images of figures behind the notorious Guy Fawkes mask along with a message saying the site was hijacked in honor of Heyer.
Screenshot via dailystormer.com
The message said the hackers would be releasing data on the site’s owner, Andrew Anglin, whom their “allies in Lagos” would be soon paying a visit.
Below is the full text of the message:
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
WE HAVE ALL OF THE DETAILS ON THE SERVERS AND WILL BE RELEASING THE DATA WHEN WE FEEL THE TIME IS RIGHT
WE HAVE ALSO GATHERED LOCATIONAL DATA ON ANGLIN HIMSELF AND ARE SENDING OUR ALLIES IN LAGOS TO PAY HIM A VISIT IN PERSON
THIS EVIL CANNOT BE ALLOWED TO STAND
IT TOOK A UNITED FORCE OF ELITE HACKERS FROM AROUND THE WORLD TO BREACH THE SYSTEMS AND THE FIREWALL
WE HAVE HAD THE DAILY STORMER IN OUR SITES FOR MONTHS NOW
THE EVENTS OF CHARLOTTESVILLE ALERTED US TO THE NEED FOR IMMEDIATE ACTION
WE WANT YOU NAZIS TO KNOW: YOUR TIME IS SHORT
WE WILL ALLOW THE SITE TO REMAIN ONLINE FOR 24 HOURS SO THE WORLD CAN WITNESS THE HATE
THEN WE WILL SHUT IT DOWN
PERMANENTLY
HACKERS OF THE WORLD HAVE UNITED IN DEFENSE OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE
YOU SHOULD HAVE EXPECTED US
But other Anonymous factions distanced themselves from the claim, saying that they couldn’t confirm any hackers from the group took the alleged hijacking.
The team has decided to echo fellow Anons in saying that we cannot confirm #dailystormer was indeed hacked by Anon operatives. Stay tuned.
— TheAnonJournal (@TheAnonJournal) August 14, 2017
One Anonymous Twitter profile made the odd claim that the Daily Stormer was making the whole thing up:
https://twitter.com/AnonyInfo/status/897003141824163840
Other links on the Daily Stormer site appear to still be active.
Although the company is being praised for cutting ties to the Daily Stormer, GoDaddy has resisted calls to do so in the past.
As The Washington Post points out, critics have been pushing GoDaddy to cut service to the site for some time, saying that the company is giving a platform to hate speech. But GoDaddy previously said that the content, although “tasteless” and “ignorant,” is protected by the 1st Amendment. Back in July, GoDaddy claimed that a Daily Stormer article threatening to ‘track down” the family members of CNN staffers did not violate their terms of service.
[This article has been updated] Featured image via Anonymous (YouTube)
