GoDaddy kicked a Nazi website off its servers late Sunday after the site posted extraordinarily vile remarks about the woman who was killed in Charlottesville during the weekend protests there.
The Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi website that advocates for white supremacy, referred to Heather Heyer as a “fat, childless 32-year-old slut” in a headline on its site. The article, by Daily Stormer founder Andrew Anglin, said, “Despite feigned outrage by the media, most people are glad she is dead, as she is the definition of uselessness. A 32-year-old woman without children is a burden on society and has no value.”
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It went on to make even more offensive statements about Heyer, who was killed when a car allegedly driven by a Nazi sympathizer roared into a crowd of counterdemonstrators in Charlottesville on Saturday. The website also asserted that Heyer was the victim of a "road rage incident."
Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Monday said the killing fit the legal definition of domestic terrorism, calling it an “evil attack.”
On Twitter Sunday night, a woman challenged GoDaddy, a web-hosting service, citing the Daily Stormer’s abuse of Heyer: “You host The Daily Stormer – they posted this on their site. Please retweet if you think this hate should be taken down & banned.” Her tweet was shared more than 7,000 times by this morning.
GoDaddy responded at 11:24 p.m. Sunday that it had given the Daily Stormer one day to get out.
Meanwhile, the Daily Stormer may have staged a hackers’ takeover of its own site. This morning this note was posted at the top of the home page, allegedly by the hackers group 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."
The takeover notice said Anonymous would allow the site to remain live for 24 hours “so the world can witness the hate. Then we will shut it down permanently.”
Anonymous tweeted later that it was unaware any of its members had hacked the site and suggested that the note was a stunt by the Daily Stormer.
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Anti-hate groups have pushed GoDaddy in recent months to stop hosting the Daily Stormer and similar sites, the Washington Post reported today.
In February, the Southern Poverty Law Center, a hate watch group, labeled the Daily Stormer the "top hate site in America."
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