claim: Anonymous seized the domain of white supremacist site Daily Stormer and announced its imminent demise.
origin: After the neo-Nazi web site The Daily Stormer mocked a woman who was killed at a 12 August 2017 white supremacist rally in Virginia, the domain host GoDaddy announced that it would no longer host the site: Â < We informed The Daily Stormer that they have 24 hours to move the domain to another provider, as they have violated our terms of service. â€” GoDaddy (@GoDaddy) August 14, 2017 > GoDaddy published the tweet at 10:24 PM Eastern Standard Time on 13 August 2017. Less than a day later, a post appeared on Daily StormerÂ claimingÂ that the domain had been seized by the decentralized international activist collective Anonymous: < END OF HATE: ANONYMOUS NOW IN CONTROL OF DAILY STORMER #TANGODOWN THIS SITE IS NOW UNDER THE CONTROL OF ANONYMOUS WE HAVE TAKEN THIS SITE IN THE NAME OF HEATHER HEYER A VICTIM OF WHITE SUPREMACIST TERRORISM FOR TOO LONG THE DAILY STORMER AND ANDREW ANGLIN HAVE SPEWED THEIR PUTRID HATE ON THIS SITE â€¦ THIS EVIL CANNOT BE ALLOWED TO STAND IT TOOK A UNITED FORCE OF ELITE HACKERS FROM AROUND THE WORLD TO BREACH THE SYSTEMS AND THE FIREWALL WE HAVE HAD THE DAILY STORMER IN OUR SITES FOR MONTHS NOW THE EVENTS OF CHARLOTTESVILLE ALERTED US TO THE NEED FOR IMMEDIATE ACTION WE WANT YOU NAZIS TO KNOW: YOUR TIME IS SHORT WE WILL ALLOW THE SITE TO REMAIN ONLINE FOR 24 HOURS SO THE WORLD CAN WITNESS THE HATE THEN WE WILL SHUT IT DOWN PERMANENTLY HACKERS OF THE WORLD HAVE UNITED IN DEFENSE OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE YOU SHOULD HAVE EXPECTED US > The Twitter account@YourAnonNews, which, while not official, is widely viewed as the most accurate source for known Anonymous action, had indicated a response to the events in Virginia was forthcoming shortly before the post appeared: < This is just getting started. Browse the images of the Alt-Reich at Charlottesville and see if you know anyone. #OpDomesticTerrorism â€” Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) August 14, 2017 > However, shortly after the post began grabbing headlines, the account pointed out several reasons to be skeptical that the collective had taken over The Daily Stormer. For one thing, the window cited by GoDaddy (24 hours) was identical to the timeframe provided in the â€œAnonymousâ€ post: Â < We have no confirmation that â€œAnonymousâ€ is involved yet. Looks more like a DS stunt. Wonder if they are having issues finding a new host. https://t.co/ikXXRBfC5p â€” Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) August 14, 2017 > < We find claim that it took a â€œUNITED FORCE OF ELITE HACKERSâ€ to hack a CMS run by amateurs incredibly amusing. â€” Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) August 14, 2017 > < If the CMS was compromised and under control by an activism motivated attacker, why leave up the old content? Easy enough to delete. â€” Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) August 14, 2017 > Â < Look at the cliche script of the site. It will give them a cute claim later that weâ€™re part of the â€œJewish Conspiracyâ€ they rant about it. â€” Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) August 14, 2017 > In a separate response, @YourAnonNews noted that the nature of the collective made the claim difficult to discount, but they remained highly skeptical: < Anythingâ€™s possible. But if that were the case, weâ€™d probably have received a communication about it. â€” Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) August 14, 2017 > Â < We are 99% confident that this is a completely false stunt by DS derps. Still not anyone taking credit, despite feelers. â€” Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) August 14, 2017 > By contrast, the account appeared to confirm that members of the group had shut down the Charlottesville city web site using a denial of service (DDOS) attack. The action came as part of what the group is calling #OpDomesticTerrorism, and was a protest against perceived inaction by Charlottesville police: < Not all of us support targeting public resources, nor do we all agree with DDOS. But the articleâ€™s author communicated with valid sources. â€” Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) August 14, 2017 > Although the decentralized nature of Anonymous (as explained by @YourAnonNews) makes it difficult to fully debunk the claim Daily Stormer was downed as part of #OpDomesticTerrorism, we are highly skeptical that the claim is true. No faction of Anonymous claimed credit, other objectionable content on the site was left intact, and most damningly, the window cited in the â€œhackedâ€ post was identical to GoDaddyâ€™s provided timeframe for Daily Stormerâ€™s shutdown. The â€œAnonymousâ€ post on Daily Stormer also failed to mention Heather Heyer, the woman killed at the rally who The Daily Stormer later mocked. However, the post did succeed in providing the condemned web site a flood of traffic: < Stop giving the Faily Stormer what it wants: Traffic.https://t.co/xdvp41V2hW â€” Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) August 14, 2017 > On 2:21 PM Eastern Standard Time, Reuters confirmed Google was cancelling Daily Stormerâ€™s domain registration after it was reported that the site obtained a replacement provider: < UPDATE: Google spokesperson says company is canceling Daily Stormerâ€™s registration for violating Google terms of service pic.twitter.com/y1VmYukS4z â€” Reuters Tech News (@ReutersTech) August 14, 2017 >