Google Domains won’t put up with The Daily Stormer, either.
Google doesn’t want DailyStormer.com, either.
The owner of the white supremacist website transferred his domain name to Google today after GoDaddy told him he needed to transfer it or it would suspend service. But Google doesn’t want anything to do with the domain name, either. In a statement to Domain Name Wire, a Google Spokesperson said:
We are cancelling Daily Stormer’s registration with Google Domains for violating our terms of service.
The statement doesn’t give any sort of indication about a timeline for allowing the owner to transfer the domain to another registrar. There are a number of registrars that will be more forgiving to the registration of the domain name, perhaps one outside the United States.
To be clear, Google was only the registrar and not the host of the website.
So who will get the hot potato next? [Update: Google has put the domain in ClientHold status, taking it out of the zone so it doesn’t resolve. This could get really interesting. I wonder if Daily Stormer has recourse? It might come down to what’s in Google’s TOS.]
If they are talking about cancelling the transfer that is one thing. If they are talking about actually cancelling the domain it is complete unacceptable.
So what happens if a domain is allowed to exist under Versign policy, but zero registrars are willing to allow it to be registered there?
It is easy to defend this decision when the content is morally repugnant to most people, but once again it is a subjective decision. What happens when this same standard starts being applied to other content people don’t like?
Brad
I suspect they just told the owner they need to transfer it elsewhere. I am sure they will find a registrar that it is willing to keep the domain with them.
This isn’t going to be easy cos most domain name registrars based in the US won’t want to accept their name as Google domain also did. That is why sometimes, it is better to create your own registrar.
There are a bunch of decisions that will end up on the SCOTUS docket regarding domains in the near future. Are they property or contracts of service? Can a registry delete a morally offensive domain? Etc….