Neo-Nazi Website Daily Stormer Moves to Dark Web After GoDaddy, Google Ousting

Neo-Nazi website the Daily Stormer, which helped organise a gathering in Virginia on Saturday that turned violent, moved to the so-called Dark Web on Tuesday because its registration to use the open Internet was revoked.

GoDaddy and Alphabet Inc's Google cancelled Daily Stormer's Internet registration on Monday, saying the group had violated terms of service, which prohibit clients from using their sites to incite violence.

Andrew Anglin, the founder of Daily Stormer, did not respond to requests for comment.

Supporters of Daily Stormer took to Twitter on Tuesday to tell people they could gain access to the website on the Dark Web, a portion of the Internet that is not indexed by popular search engines. It can only be seen with a special browser, which hides the identity and location of the users.

A 32-year-old woman was killed and 19 other people injured when a man rammed his car into a group of people objecting to a "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. The man has been charged with murder.

The violence presented President Donald Trump with one of his biggest domestic political challenges so far in how he has responded to right-wing groups that are a segment of his political base.

Internet companies have increasingly found themselves in the crosshairs over hate speech and other volatile social issues, with politicians and others calling on them to do more to police their networks while civil libertarians worry about the firms suppressing free speech.

Twitter, Facebook, Google's YouTube, and other platforms have ramped up efforts to combat the social media efforts of Islamic militant groups, largely in response to pressure from European governments. Now they are facing similar pressures in the United States over white supremacist and neo-Nazi content.

© Thomson Reuters 2017