At time of writing the extreme right-wing website Daily Stormer is still online.
The website operator is now claiming to have “retaken control” of the site.
However, as has been reported in the mainstream media as well as on most domain industry sites, the domain was booted by GoDaddy. It now resides with Google:
Domain Name: DAILYSTORMER.COM
Registry Domain ID: 1787753602_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.google.com
Registrar URL: http://domains.google.com
Updated Date: 2017-08-14T14:51:45Z
Creation Date: 2013-03-20T22:43:18Z
Registry Expiry Date: 2020-03-20T22:43:18Z
Registrar: Google Inc.
Registrar IANA ID: 895
Registrar Abuse Contact Email: registrar-abuse@google.com
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1.8772376466
Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited
Name Server: JEAN.NS.CLOUDFLARE.COM
Name Server: KIRK.NS.CLOUDFLARE.COM
DNSSEC: unsigned
URL of the ICANN Whois Inaccuracy Complaint Form: https://www.icann.org/wicf/
>>> Last update of whois database: 2017-08-14T20:06:07Z <<<
The whois extract above is directly from Verisign and shows the current status of the domain.
It’s still with Google and is continuing to use CloudFlare for its DNS. The registration has not been suspended, so the domain (and website) are still online:
Google have told the BBC that they were also going to cancel their account based on a terms of service violation:
We are cancelling Daily Stormer’s registration with Google Domains for violating our terms of service
What that means in real terms is unclear, as the domain is still with them and active. One could surmise that they’ve also given them 24 hours to move to another registrar.
So where can they go to next?
It’s highly unlikely that any US based domain name registrar would want to have the domain name on their books. Moving the domain outside the US would seem to be the logical choice for them.
But where to?
Canada? Unlikely for a number of reasons, including the amount of cross-border trade with the US. I’m not sure many of the Canadian registrars would want the domain either.
Europe? Highly unlikely. Neo-nazis aren’t welcome.
Asia? Middle East? Africa? Considering the kind of stuff the guys running the site are in favour of that would be a rather odd choice.
