GoDaddy and then Google ban neo-Nazi site Daily Stormer By Washington Post, adapted by Newsela staff on 08.17.17 Word Count 991 Level 1040L Flowers surround a photo of 32-year-old Heather Heyer, who was killed when a car plowed into a crowd of people protesting against the white supremacist Unite the Right rally on August 13, 2017, in Charlottesville, Virginia. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images SAN FRANCISCO, California - The push for Internet companies to remove hateful speech has intensified in the wake of violent clashes in Charlottesville, Virginia over the weekend. Chaos hit Charlottesville last Saturday during a white supremacist rally. White supremacists and neo-Nazis have the wrong and hateful belief that white people are better than people of other races. The violent day left three people dead and dozens of people injured. GoDaddy is the largest domain name service. It registers names for 71 million websites globally. A domain name is the address you type in when you want to visit a site. The move is the latest and perhaps the broadest indication of how far technology companies are willing to go in response to outcry that their services are being used to promote racism and white supremacy. This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. 1 Drawing The Line Against Hate Speech Although technology companies have long resisted calls to regulate the content they host, they have been under more pressure recently. Companies appear to be bowing at least to some of it. "This may very well indicate that the sense of responsibility among tech companies is deepening," said Susan Benesch, director of the Dangerous Speech Project. It is a nonprofit group that researches harmful online content and free speech. "They are under gigantic pressure to solve this problem, and they are reacting as they never have before." Freedom of speech is guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Many technology companies are facing a challenge over the extent to which they must uphold freedom of speech. Can an Internet company remove content that is hateful? GoDaddy and other Internet companies have to decide where to strike a balance and where to draw the line. On Monday, GoDaddy kicked the neo-Nazi website Daily Stormer off its systems. It cited company policies that prohibit speech that incites "violence against people." GoDaddy said the move was in response to a Twitter user who called attention to a post by Daily Stormer founder Andrew Anglin. He criticized 32-year-old Heather Heyer, who was killed Saturday in Charlottesville when a man plowed into a crowd with his vehicle. The post attacked Heyer's appearance and used a slur to describe her as a loose woman. "Most people are glad she is dead," Anglin wrote. The Daily Stormer then transferred its listing to Google. That prompted an outcry. Google responded quickly, cutting off the white supremacy site. They said that posts on the website violated Google's policies. A company called Cloudflare continued to service the Daily Stormer. Censorship Issues Raised Many people praised GoDaddy's decision. They said it represented a shift by tech corporations to take more responsibility. The praise came from both liberals and conservatives. Liberals want social change while conservatives like the way things are traditionally done. "It's well past time for platforms that already exercise some discretion to stop pretending they are just dumb pipes that allow all types of garbage to flow through them," said Laurence Tribe. He is a law professor at Harvard University. Tribe called the move "long overdue." However, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has a different view. It said that people should not be quick to condemn the display of even "the most vile white supremacist speech." This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. 2 People are relieved when speech they disagree with is removed, but the censorship can come back to bite them when they are on the receiving end, said Lee Rowland. She is a lawyer with the ACLU. The First Amendment has enabled Americans throughout history to challenge views because "we are able to reveal what people really think and counter it," she added. GoDaddy's decision comes after other moves to crack down on hateful content. After pressure from activists, payment processor PayPal and Patreon recently canceled accounts for some questionable figures. Google recently apologized to major advertisers after their content appeared on hate and white supremacist sites. It promised to do better. Facebook also has blocked several extreme pages in recent weeks. Airbnb stopped neo-Nazis from using its site to book lodging for their rally in Charlottesville. Mike Cernovich is a member of the "alt-right." The group is very socially traditional and many of its members hold views that are hurtful to women and people of color. Cernovich said social media companies should let people use their platform as long as they aren't promoting violence. "There are always ideas people have on the left and right (that) are going to offend somebody, but do we really want corporations taking sides?" Tech Companies Take Responsibility For Their Content In a statement, GoDaddy spokesman Dan Race said that the web-hosting company generally protects free speech. However, it determined that the Daily Stormer had "crossed the line and encouraged and promoted violence," he said. "We generally do not take action on complaints" that would involve "censorship of content," the statement said. However, if a site crosses over to promoting violence against anyone, "we will take action," it said. GoDaddy said that it had received complaints about the Daily Stormer before. It said that the complaints hadn't warranted action. But as recently as July, the site had promised to "track down" the families of CNN employees. Daily Stormer also has posted the names and contact information for a Jewish family in Montana, describing the 12-year-old son with disrespectful words. In a statement, Cloudflare said it was "aware of the concerns" about some websites, but would not comment on specific sites. Technology companies are protected by laws. They are not held responsible for content that appears on their platforms. As they move further into policing speech and expression, technology companies could be accused of being inconsistent. They are blocking some sites in response to public pressure, but thousands of others remain. This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. 3 Leaders at Twitter and Facebook have said that they do not want to be "arbiters of truth." In other words, they do not want to make determinations about what people see or don't see on their sites. This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. 4.