Companies React to Violence in Charlottesville

A brand of Tiki torches denounced the violence, GoDaddy bans neo-Nazi site.

charlottesville
Flowers surround a photo of 32-year-old Heather Heyer, who was killed when a car plowed into a crowd of people protesting against the white supremacist Unite the Right rally, August 13, 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

A brand of tiki torches denounced the use of its products by white supremacists this past weekend in Charlottesville, VA, reports The Hill

TIKI said in a Facebook post that they are not associated in any way with the events that took place in Charlottesville. On Friday night, white supremacists marched through the city holding tiki torches, ahead of a planned rally held in the city the next day. TIKI also said they are “deeply saddened and disappointed to be included” writes The Hill.

The post reads: “We do not support their message or the use of our products in this way. Our products are designed to enhance backyard gatherings and to help family and friends connect with each other at home in their yard.”

The group marched onto the University of Virginia campus holding the torches, shouting “white lives matter” and “you will not replace us” ahead of a planned “Unite the Right” rally scheduled for Saturday to protest the removal of a Confederate statue.

On Saturday, one man drove a car into a crowd of counter-protestors, killing one and leaving more than a dozen injured, reports The Hill.

Other companies have reacted to as well. GoDaddy announced late Sunday that it will no longer house the Daily Stormer, “a neo-Nazi website that promotes white supremacist and white nationalist ideas” reports the Washington PostGoDaddy tweeted that Daily Stormer had been told it had 24 hours to move its website domain to another provider.

The company said Daily Stormer had “violated” the Web host’s “terms of service.” This was after a Twitter user called attention to an online post by Daily Stormer Andrew Angelin, reports the Post, which disparaged Heather Heyer, the 32-year-old woman killed in Charlottesville by the man who drove his car into a crowd.

In the post, Angelin called Heyer a “drain on society,” disparaged her appearance and wrote “Most people are glad she is dead.”

Twitter user Amy Siskind tweeted at GoDaddy, alerting them to Angelin’s Daily Stormer post and said “Please retweet if you think this hate should be taken down and banned.” Her post was shared over 5,000 times.

Dan Race, GoDaddy’s spokesperson, confirmed the company’s decision to kick the Daily Stormer off their service in an email to the Washington Post. 

“Given The Daily Stormer’s 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,” Race wrote in the email to the Post. 

The InsideHook Newsletter.

News, advice and insights for the most interesting person in the room.