Neo-Nazi Website Stormfront Shut Down Amidst Crackdown

Image by Stormfront

By Sam Kestenbaum August 28, 2017

The internet crackdown on white supremacists continues, with the prominent neo-Nazi website Stormfront shuttering this weekend.

Stormfront.org’s domain provider Network Solutions LLC has placed a hold on the site. The Knoxville News Sentinel reports that the site’s closure comes after the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law wrote a letter arguing that Stormfront was in violation of the parent company’s “acceptable use policy.”

The forum has deep roots in the white supremacist world — and has been tied to a number of violent incidents. Members of the Stormfront site have been linked to almost 100 bias-related murders, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Other neo-Nazi websites and users have been booted from their platforms in recent weeks, particularly in the wake of violent clashes at a white nationalist rally in Virginia. The Daily Stormer, for example, was kicked off successive platforms over the course of a few days.

The tech website Gizmodo suspects that “in all likeliness Stormfront will do what the Daily Stormer has been doing for weeks now: hopping between domains, providers, and hosts; ping ponging between the dark net and the clear web.”

Email Sam Kestenbaum at [email protected] 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 [email protected] and follow him on Twitter at @skestenbaum and on Instagram at @skestenbaum.

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