Registrar tells the controversial social network to take a hike.
Domain name registrar GoDaddy (NYSE:GDDY) has informed Gab.com that it needs to move its domain name to a different company. This is according to a tweet from the controversial social network, which posted the email notice from GoDaddy (pictured).
Gab.com has come under fire after it surfaced that the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter was active on the site. The social network is known for letting anything be published and has become popular with racists and for hate speech.
Other companies pulling the plug on Gab.com include PayPal, Stripe and its hosting providers.
GoDaddy tries to avoid suspending service to domains due to the content on them but has made exceptions. Last year it told the operator of the white supremacist site Daily Stormer to switch registrars after the Charlottesville rally. The registrar said the site was inciting violence, which is against its terms of service.
The operators of Daily Stormer and Gab are actually fortunate that GoDaddy merely asked them to switch providers. When DailyStormer.com moved to Google, the company went a step further by suspending and locking the domain.
Gab.com was purchased for over $200,000 on Sedo. It appears that the social network then acquired the domain on Flippa for $220,000 last month. It had been using Gab.ai for its web address.
The same registrar that embrace PIPA and SOPA and bows down to DMCA and Legitscript complaints without a court order and with light scrutiny has cast their vote against free speech. Shocking.
The problem with this move is that it creates precedent. If you allow user generated content on your site, then any nut can publish nutty content on your site. You are now responsible for curating every nut which is hard to scale.
In the meantime, Google Books is full of some of the nastiest hate content ever published in history and no action is taken. There is double standard here and the domain industry should be be careful to buy into it too closely.
The exercise of discernment in deciding which domains to take offline takes more time. It takes intelligent time and it is actually uncompensated time. Same thing with ombudsman work. And yet it comes with the registrar job!
Free speech is complicated and works both ways. A bit hypocritical and short sighted to expect companies to do business with you regardless of what content you decide to host. Life and business simply don’t work that way. Most often you can’t have your cake and it, too. Which is exactly what Gab apparently expects.
Got no problem with Gab, but also got no problem with those who choose not to do business with Gab. Can’t blame your business partners and cry about it. If you couldn’t foresee the inherent risks of your business model, and didn’t take the appropriate measures to safeguard the business, you have only yourself to blame.
Disagree. GoDaddy should be looked at like a library. Libraries should be allowed to carry all books without fear of prosecution from anyone for content within one of the books. They same logic should be applied to domain registrars in the digital age.
As the old saying goes, “information begs to be free”. This is just another nail in the coffin for free speech.
Shame on GoDaddy for joining Facebook, Twitter and others for cracking down on speech they don’t agree with. I
It’s anti-American and treasonous.
The great thing about America is we are entitled to our own opinions, and can agree or disagree.
There are many public libraries, if not most, that refuse to offer copies of Mein Kampf. Reckon some language used on Gab not that different. Library probably not the best analogy to use to support your logic.
I like Gab’s concept, just think they didn’t execute well as a business. Being scapegoated for a hate crime was a foreseeable risk. They didn’t set up technical components of business in right jurisdictions, and apparently didn’t have sufficient contingency planning.
Businesses are for profit and non governmental, they will always act in their best interest not ours. Same as it ever was.
GD did the same thing with AltRight.com.
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/05/04/whackanazi_resumes_as_godaddy_exiles_altrightcom/
It was horrible what happened but that should never be used as an excuse to crackdown on freedom of speech, only a tyranny does that…It isn’t Gab that shot these people, in fact it is better that people like the shooter’s views are aired in public then they are more likely to be noticed.
Gab should look at where the big porn sites host their domains and content and go for one of those, which you’d hope are libertarian enough to let them use their services.