Did Anonymous Hack Daily Stormer, Which Called Charlottesville Victim ‘Drain On Society’?

The Daily Stormer — which wrote an inflammatory post describing the woman killed Saturday in an alt-right counter-protest in Charlottesville, Virginia, as “a drain on society” — was back online Monday after hosting company GoDaddy booted it Sunday and someone purporting to represent the hacker group Anonymous claimed to have taken control. It’s unclear how long Daily Stormer will remain online, though.

“For too long the Daily Stormer and Andrew Anglin have spewed their putrid hate on this site,” the post supposedly from Anonymous said. “That will not be happening anymore.”

But there’s growing confusion about whether the hacker group Anonymous took over the the Daily Stormer’s site, or founder and editor Andrew Anglin made the claim to draw attention to the website before GoDaddy, and perhaps Google, can take it down. Go Daddy gave the site 24 hours notice that its account would be suspended. Alphabet Inc., which owns Google, said Monday that it, too, had rejected the Daily Stormer, saying it violates terms of service, Reuters reported.

The Daily Stormer wrote, among other things, that “most people are glad she is dead, as she is the definition of uselessness” and said “a 32-year-old woman without children is a burden on society and has no value.” The message said the Daily Stormer said the site will remain online for 24 hours “so the world can witness the hate.”

Anglin proclaimed victory on Monday, saying the Daily Stormer had regained control of the website from Anonymous. The alt-right website takes its name from Nazi propaganda sheet known as Der Stürmer, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups nationwide.

A fresh controversy came Monday when whoever is in control of the website said the Daily Stormer planned to send Nazi and white supremacist agitators to the funeral for Heather Heyer, the woman who was killed.

Also Monday, a video press release attributed to Anonymous warned that it is launching Operation Domestic Terrorism that is “coming for” people who have deigned themselves “the master race.”

In the original report of an Anonymous takeover, an account linked to the said The Daily Stormer has been on activists’ radar for several months, but the violence in Charlottesville prompted immediate action. The post claimed “it took a united force of elite hackers from around the world to breach the systems and the firewall.”

“Given their latest article comes on the immediate heels of a violent act, we believe this type of article could incite additional violence, which violates our terms of service,” GoDaddy spokesman Dan Race told CNN in a statement.

YourAnonNews tweeted the Daily Stormer may be having trouble finding another web hosting partner.

Photo by Luciano Castillo via Flickr Commons