Leaving at speeds faster than Danica
A few months back 538Refugees pulled our domains off of GoDaddy.com because the owner, Bob Parsons, has a penchant for hunting African elephants. GoDaddy also objectifies women in their advertising (This image of race car driver Danica Patrick is one of lesser objectifying images from GoDaddy).
But now, Parsons has really stepped deep in the elephant dung as Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia.com announced today that they would be pulling all of their domains from GoDaddy. The reason? Parsons has come out in support of the controversial Stop On-Line Piracy Act currently being considered in congress.
For a detailed explanation of the effects of SOPA see the graphic below:
According to DomainChanges.com, over 37,000 domains have been removed from GoDaddy in the past few days after a call for a boycott on Reddit. GoDaddy issued a quasi-reversal but the damage may have already begun. GoDaddy has also begun calling on those who are moving their domains to ask them to reconsider.
NameCheap.com (where this domain now resides) has accused GoDaddy of stalling in transferring domains out of the registrar. Another domain owner who goes by the handle quixmar performed an experiment which they posted at the Huffington Post:
I looked at another registrar for a fake name like eettaa.com and naturally it was available because that would be a wacky name. Back to GoDaddy and, mysteriously…it was reserved, and I could BUY it from them.
GoDaddy is racking up quite a collection of controversies. It’s unclear whether this will have an effect on the SOPA bill being escorted through Congress but it could continue to have an effect on GoDaddy. Reddit users have called December 29th ‘Leave GoDaddy day’. We’ll update this article on any ensuing carnage.
Related articles
- SOPA supporters facing boycotts, thanks to Reddit – CBS News (cbsnews.com)
- Competitor: GoDaddy is thwarting domain transfers (macworld.com)
- Go Daddy loses over 37,000 domains due to SOPA stance (VentureBeat.com)
- GoDaddy Responds To Namecheap Accusations, Removes “Normal” Rate Limiting Block (techcrunch.com)
- Has GoDaddy’s Elephant-Killing CEO Finally Gone Too Far? [The Internet] (gawker.com)
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Oh get a bloody life. It’s up to them what they do, called freedom of choice in this day and age.