GoDaddy pulls the plug on Neo-Nazi site

[ShimmerSwirl]

Was it a legal consequence? No? Then it was a social one.

Being fined and banned from the NBA by the NBA commissioner, who has the legal authority to impose such sanctions. Yes it was clearly a legal consequence.

[Pannonian]

Being fined and banned from the NBA by the NBA commissioner, who has the legal authority to impose such sanctions. Yes it was clearly a legal consequence.

The NBA is run by the government?

[Wyrt]

Being fined and banned from the NBA by the NBA commissioner, who has the legal authority to impose such sanctions. Yes it was clearly a legal consequence.

The NBA is not run by the government.

[Varitok]

It is a slippery slope, no one is going to miss a site but one day what if it starts happening to political figures that internet providers don't agree with, or religion?

That's a fallacy, I am not one to let the nazi's take root in western society, Its the mentality of "Oh, we don't agree but they aren't gonna get big" that gave way to Hitler and WW2.

[ShimmerSwirl]

The NBA is not run by the government.

How exactly do you think Adam Silver kicked Sterling out of the league? Asked him to go home and please don't go into work tomorrow? You seem to think the words 'legal' and 'government' are synonyms. They aren't.

[Pannonian]

How exactly do you think Adam Silver kicked Sterling out of the league? Asked him to go home and please don't go into work tomorrow? You seem to think the words 'legal' and 'government' are synonyms. They aren't.

Now i don't know exactly how it works, but the league is a private club with rules, and he was fired according to their rules. That's like a companies code of conduct. The freedom from censorship applies to government, not private bodies.

Again, the NBA is not part of the government, so the first doesn't apply.

[Lahis]

I consider myself alt-right, and Im against racism

I think that's an oxymoron o_õ

[kail]

Why have protected classes if we are all equal? Are you saying that those protected classes aren't equal to the rest of us? Can't have equality if certain people get special treatment.

??? They are there to retain equality. Black people are not a protected class, race is. Women are not a protected class, gender is. See where I'm going?

[joshual]

would that be against the freedom of speech?

[Wyrt]

would that be against the freedom of speech?

No, because GoDaddy is not the government.

[Mormolyce]

Being fined and banned from the NBA by the NBA commissioner, who has the legal authority to impose such sanctions. Yes it was clearly a legal consequence.

Pfaaahahahaha!

No.

And stop hating capitalism, Commie.

[Phlegethon]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.9f1985eee51b

While it may be the right thing to do given the circumstances, is it appropriate to shoo business away based on political stances? Is it in some extreme instances such as this one?

Should private companies remain neutral on cases like these? Especially considering how much power/control GoDaddy has over an enormous number of websites. Doesn't that open a precedent to censorship, or is this form of policing required in cases that warrant it?

Why should they need to be neutral?

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It is a slippery slope, no one is going to miss a site but one day what if it starts happening to political figures that internet providers don't agree with, or religion?

They should do that with religion though. Most people seem to be too stupid to see it's a scam...

[Mormolyce]

If Neo-Nazis were to become a protected group tomorrow, then this sort of action would be illegal. Makes sense. Thanks.

If neo-Nazis became a protected group and you were fired for being a neo-Nazi then you could take the company to court. You could also possibly take GoDaddy to court for denying you service.

Something tells me people wouldn't be keen on making that a protected class though. Kek.

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It is a slippery slope, no one is going to miss a site but one day what if it starts happening to political figures that internet providers don't agree with, or religion?

Then that would actually be a freedom of speech issue.

Unlike all this whining about people not wanting to associate or do business with you if you're a complete cunt.

[Danner]

There is actually three topics here.

#1: Website hosting
There are thousands of companies out there that can host your site. As such, it's the buyers market. GoDaddy deciding they don't want to host a particularly pesky customer's website whose content is flagrantly going against their ToS is a-ok in my book. That customer can simply find someone else to do it, someone else with different morals.

Under no situation does this lead to a situation where that customer's website disappears off the internet, beyond briefly. Worst case, it is really not that hard to set up your own servers if you have to. This particular topic is IMO non-controversial, and if this was all it was about, I wouldn't even be here talking.

#2: Name registry
There are not a lot of .com DNS registrars left in the world. They all merged and disappeared. If you want a shiny .com address for your site rather than forcing your viewers to type in 192.168.10.1 every time they want to visit your website you need to do business with one of those registrars. The possibilities broaden a bit once you look at every country's individual registry as well; but these tend to have various rules to it that you may not be able to meet (whereas others like Tonga literally accept anyone).

GoDaddy and Google both refused to register this particular customer's domain, if I understand it correct. That's causing me concern. Because this is clearly not how the internet should work. Imagine all the stores in your town suddenly refusing you business. Individually that's their right, but combined it leads to them literally making your life insufferable. If you want a domain name, you kinda need to do business with at least one of them. IMO this one is controversial as hell, and goes against the spirit of the internet. I am not okay with this.

Technically it is possible to get around this issue, by paying the $4000 ICANN registrar fee and become your own domain name registrar. That's a hurdle for a small business or organization, but not an impossible one. I would argue this is absolutely not how it should be, and violates the spirit of the internet, and the spirit of free speech both. Technically it is possible to create your own town store as well, or grow your own vegetables, if all the stores in your town refused you business. It's still wrong that you have to.

#3: Internet Access
Finally, to host a website you need an IP address. This is non-negotiable to be on the internet. If every ISP in the world simply refused to do business with some organization, that organization would literally disappear off the internet. IMO this falls more under topic #1's resolution, because there are a bazillion ISPs out there (just very few of them doing business with your address). It is not a practical problem by any means to find one willing to host any kind of shit.

But it could be in a hypotetical dystopian future where your internet access was exclusively provided, worldwide, by the Disney-Google-McDonalds conglomerate, and said conglomerate decided to not do business with you. I believe the ability to share ideas on the internet should be a fundamental right. That's what the internet is for. That includes the terrible ones. Terrible ideas are killed by better ideas, not censorship.

Because you can betcha the same Disney-Google-McDonalds conglomerate would shut off your pro-net-netrality site just as easily. So let's not go to that dystopian future.

[Raakel]

And I always thought believing in Nazi shit and crazy religions is protected by the U.S. Constitution / First Amendment.

I just remember how you gave us (in Gemrany) shit about hate speech measures and that we are on the edge of full thought control again and now look what happens in the US! Looks like you have your own shit to deal with....

I feel satisfied.

[Wyrt]

And I always thought believing in Nazi shit and crazy religions is protected by the U.S. Constitution / First Amendment.

I just remember how you gave us (in Gemrany) shit about hate speech measures and that we are on the edge of full thought control again and now look what happens in the US! Looks like you have your own shit to deal with....

I feel satisfied.

First amendment just protects against the government. Does nothing about private individuals or businesses.

[Barnabas]

Fake news alert! Dailystormer has been registered with google since 2013. You can look them up yourself and see they are still with google until 2020. Can the washingtonpost ever post the truth, for once?

[Wyrt]

Fake news alert! Dailystormer has been registered with google since 2013. You can look them up yourself and see they are still with google until 2020. Can the washingtonpost ever post the truth, for once?

Odd that the dailystormer site is down then.

[Barnabas]

Odd that the dailystormer site is down then.

Point still is they were never registered with godaddy according to records that are public.

[Lochton]

Meh, just ban all topics from web hosting.