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Daily Stormer booted off internet again, this time by Namecheap

CEO says he's made 'right decision for the human race' but created 'an existential threat for our company'

White supremacist web site The Daily Stormer has been booted off the internet, again.

GoDaddy and Google each denied the site registration last week, after it published extraordinary vulgar and insensitive comments about Heather Heyer, the civil rights protestor killed during protests in Charlottesville, Virginia. CloudFlare has also declined to offer its services.

Now registrar and hosting company Namecheap has also declined to host the site. In a post CEO Richard Kirkendall says he has considered “both sides of the free speech consideration.”

This was the right decision for the human race but it was also an existential threat for our company

“On the one hand, we cannot be the ones censoring content, unpopular though it may be. On the other hand, and without question, the content appearing on the DailyStormer.lol is highly offensive, even more so in light of the recent events in Charlottesville, VA.”

Kirkendall appears to have read more than a few Stormer stories and notes that several call for genocide. He also says he's “considered this from a Constitutional perspective and sought a legal perspective” and has concluded that “hate speech and incitement of violence provides ample legal support for a proper termination of the domains.”

The CEO has also added an Addendum to his post in which he hints at a backlash agains the company and calls for standards so that domain name registrars aren't forced to judge free speech issues.

“Let me be frank here and I’ll repeat, this was the right decision for the human race but it was also an existential threat for our company,” Kirkendall wrote. “While I feel I made the right decision, I also thought about what this meant for us as a business. What it would mean for the dream we have to deliver everything we’ve imagined for the future of our platform to solve customer problems.”

“More importantly, I thought about our 1100 team members that directly depend on this company for their livelihood and our millions of customers that depend on us for stability and peace of mind that we are keeping their domains safe. With these things in mind and as a leader of a company that has a direct responsibility to do what is best for our customers and our people, could I have made any other decision here? I don’t think I could have and therein lies the problem.”

“Registrars need a set of guidelines just as the internet does that empowers or requires them to remain neutral and a clear judicial process to solve these types of issues quickly and effectively,” he adds. “These matters should not be solved in the courts of public opinion because public opinion is not always right.” ®

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