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Tech companies are laying into white supremacists

On Monday, following the horrifying events in Charlottesville Virginia at the weekend, white supremacist site The Daily Stormer found itself without a domain host.

First, Godaddy told the site to shove off after it violated its terms and conditions. Then Google cancelled the site’s registration for pretty much the same reason.

It seems, though, that Silicon Valley wasn’t finished with the far right yet – not by a long shot. Even though President Donald Trump has refused to outright condemn the actions of neo-nazis in Charlottesville – which included driving a car into a crowd of anti-nazi protesters, killing one and injuring several others – tech firms have been unequivocal in their responses.

Facebook got the ball rolling by banning white supremacist Christopher Cantwell’s FB accounts as well as several other groups early in the week (if you don’t know who Cantwell is, he’s featured in this news doc made by VICE). It also removed links to his podcast and several other white supremacist FB groups it said violated its terms of service.

Twitter has booted The Daily Stormer from its platform, and now, reports state that the site’s unpopularity with mainstream domain providers has become so great, it’s had to retreat to the Dark Web.

Crowdfunding site GoFundMe has removed several campaigns aimed at raising money for James Alex Fields, the man who allegedly struck anti-fascist protest with a car.

The CEOs for both Microsoft and Apple (Satya Nadella and Tim Cook respectively) both released strongly worded statements condemning the actions of white supremacists in Charlottesville.

“There is no place in our society for the bias, bigotry and senseless violence we witnessed this weekend in Virginia provoked by white nationalists. Our hearts go out to the families and everyone impacted by the Charlottesville tragedy,” wrote Nadella in a memo sent out to Microsoft employees.

In a statement to Apple employees Cook called racism “a cancer” and even took President Trump to task over his inconsistent response:

“I disagree with the president and others who believe that there is a moral equivalence between white supremacists and Nazis, and those who oppose them by standing up for human rights. Equating the two runs counter to our ideals as Americans,” Cook wrote.

Here’s hoping more companies – both in the US and abroad – follow Silicon Valley’s lead on this.

 

[Image – CC 2.0 Mark Heard]

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