Neo-Nazi Daily Stormer Sued By Comedian Amidst Internet Crackdown

Andrew Anglin

By Sam Kestenbaum August 17, 2017

The comedian and writer Dean Obeidallah filed a defamation lawsuit against the neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer on Wednesday, just as the site has been booted from a series of online hosts over the last two days.

The site’s publisher Andrew Anglin falsely claimed in June that Obeidallah, an American Muslim who hosts a Sirius XM show, was the “mastermind” behind the bombing in Manchester, England. Obeidallah began receiving death threats after Anglin’s post, the New York Times reported.

Obeidallah said he has been threatened online because of the Daily Stormer, with one person saying he should be hanged. “There aren’t two sides to white supremacy, white supremacism, anti-Muslim bigotry or racism,” Obeidallah told the New York Times.

Anglin’s site — dubbed the country’s “top hate site” by the Southern Poverty Law Center — is known for launching “troll storms” against people the publisher views as enemies. Anglin is also being sued by the Southern Poverty Law Center for launching an online campaign against a Jewish woman in Montana.

In the wake of a rally in Virginia that devolved into violence, white nationalists have come under greater scrutiny online, some being booted from social media services.

Email Sam Kestenbaum at kestenbaum@forward.com and follow him on Twitter at @skestenbaum

Sam Kestenbaum is a contributing editor and former staff writer for the Forward. Before this, he worked for The New York Times and newsrooms in Sana, Ramallah and Beijing. Contact him at kestenbaum@forward.com and follow him on Twitter at @skestenbaum and on Instagram at @skestenbaum.

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