GoDaddy, one of the largest internet domain name companies, has reportedly kicked a white supremacy website off their platform after the website posted an article bashing the woman who died in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday.
The Daily Stormer published a story hinting that the woman, Heather Heyer, died in a “road rage incident” and included insults to her appearance and alleged personal life.
Heyer, who was in Charlottesville Saturday protesting against a white supremacist rally, was killed when a car was driven into counterprotesters. The driver, 20-year-old James Alex Fields Jr., who came to Charlottesville from Ohio to participate in the white supremacist rally, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder, among other charges. At least 19 others were injured.
GoDaddy reported that they gave The Daily Stormer 24 hours to move their content to a new domain name because their content violates their terms of service that bans “morally offensive activity.”
“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 responded on Twitter.
Dan Race, a spokesman for GoDaddy, told The Washington Post that because the Daily Stormer’s post comes “on the immediate heels of a violent act,” the company kicked the website off their platform because they believe it could incite additional violence.
Following GoDaddy’s decision, the Daily Stormer website appears to have been taken over by the hacker group Anonymous “in the name of Heather Heyer a victim of white supremacist terrorism.”
The white supremacist rally sparked widespread condemnation from both Republicans and Democrats, including members of the Trump administration. President Trump has condemned the violence but refused to specifically call out the white supremacists, saying “many sides” were responsible for the incident.