Daily Stormer: Cloudflare drops neo-Nazi site

A neo-Nazi site that disparaged a woman who died during protests in Charlottesville has faced another wave of rejection by web companies.

The Daily Stormer's account with Cloudflare - which protects websites from distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks - has been terminated.

Cloudflare's chief executive Matthew Prince said he had "had enough", in a company email obtained by Gizmodo.

However, he added that he felt conflicted over the decision.

"Literally, I woke up in a bad mood and decided someone shouldn't be allowed on the internet," wrote Mr Prince.

"No-one should have that power."

On Sunday, the Daily Stormer published an article denigrating Heather Heyer, 32, who was killed after a car rammed into protesters against a far-right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

This led to a backlash in which the site had to switch domain name registrars twice in 24 hours, after GoDaddy and Google both removed it from their services.

Cloudflare's service involves handling web users' requests to view a site and filtering out those that appear to be coming from systems set up to overload the site.

Without such protection, websites can sometimes be knocked offline.

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Mr Prince said leaving the site open to DDoS attacks could lead to "vigilante justice", in a blog post published later on Wednesday.

However, he also said: "Our terms of service reserve the right for us to terminate users of our network at our sole discretion.

"The tipping point for us making this decision was that the team behind Daily Stormer made the claim that we were secretly supporters of their ideology."

Earlier in the week, the Daily Stormer was set up as a site on the dark web and later relocated its open web presence to a Russian domain name ending ".ru".

A spokesman for the Russian media watchdog Roskomnadzor said it had asked web firm Ru-Center to shut this down.

A BBC check on Thursday morning found that the .ru address no longer appeared to be working.

The Daily Stormer has faced frustration elsewhere in recent days.

Three Twitter accounts associated with the site that had previously been active were suddenly listed as "suspended" on Wednesday.

And cyber-security researcher Joseph Evers announced that he had stopped hosting an internet chat channel he said was used by staff at the Daily Stormer.

Describing himself as having once been a "free speech absolutist", Mr Evers added: "I'm glad to do my small part in countering white supremacy."

Donations blocked

Besides the Daily Stormer's case, this week Paypal reiterated its stance on blocking donations to organisations that promote hate, violence or racial intolerance.

"This includes organizations that advocate racist views, such as the KKK, white supremacist groups or Nazi groups," the payment-processing firm said.

Internet companies were facing a "dilemma" over how to balance support for freedom of speech with a desire not to encourage hate groups, said Prof Eric Heinze, at Queen Mary, University of London.

"Had the Charlottesville events not occurred, the hate sites would still be operating from Cloudflare, GoDaddy, and other such venues," he told the BBC.

"Some might call it satisfactory to wait until actual harm occurs before closing such a site. But others will say that's too little and too late."

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Trump defends ‘beautiful’ Civil War statues

US President Donald Trump has denounced the removal of "beautiful" Confederate statues amid a heated national debate about US race relations.

"Sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and monuments," he tweeted.

"You can't change history, but you can learn from it," he continued.

Mr Trump drew outrage by defending organisers of a white supremacist rally that left a woman dead and dozens hurt.

The rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, supported by neo-Nazis and white supremacists, was in protest of the removal of a statue of Robert E Lee, a general who had fought for the pro-slavery Confederacy during the US Civil War.

It turned deadly when a driver ploughed into a crowd of counter protesters, inflicting fatal injuries on Heather Heyer.

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"Robert E Lee, Stonewall Jackson - who's next, Washington, Jefferson? So foolish!" Mr Trump continued in a series of tweets on Thursday.

"The beauty that is being taken out of our cities, towns and parks will be greatly missed and never able to be comparably replaced!"

The recent removal of controversial statues, including some to leaders of the pro-slavery rebellion defeated in the US Civil War, has been the latest flashpoint in racial tensions across the country.

Critics say monuments to the Confederacy are racially offensive, but supporters say they are important symbols preserving Southern heritage.

Maine's Governor Paul LePage, a Republican, said on Thursday taking down Confederate statues is "just like" removing a monument to the victims of the 9/11 attacks.

But relatives of Stonewall Jackson, a Confederate leader Mr Trump mentioned in his Thursday tweets, wrote an open letter to the mayor of Richmond, Virginia, urging him to remove the statue of their great-great-grandfather and all other Confederate statues in town.

Jack and Warren Christian, Mr Jackson's great-great-sons, said removing the statues would "further difficult conversations about racial justice".

"While we are not ashamed of our great-great-grandfather, we are ashamed to benefit from white supremacy while our black family and friends suffer," the pair wrote. "We are ashamed of the monument."

Robert E Lee V, the great-great-grandson of the famous Confederate general, issued a statement condemning the violence in the wake of the statue removals.

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"While the debate about how we memorialise figures from our past continues, we the descendants of Robert E Lee decry in the strongest terms the misuse of his memory by those advancing a message of intolerance and hate," he said in a statement to the BBC.

"He never would have tolerated the hateful words and violent actions of white supremacists, the KKK, or Neo Nazis."

The president's comments came after a week of turmoil over his response to the violent clashes in the small Virginia town.

Mr Trump was criticised for blaming both sides for the violence, but belatedly condemned the white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups on Monday.

During a heated news conference on Tuesday he backtracked and again blamed left-wing counter-protesters for the incident, too.

Amid the fallout over the president's response, corporate leaders and CEOs began resigning from two White House business councils.

On Wednesday, the Strategy and Policy Forum announced it would disband as Mr Trump said he would end the council as well as a manufacturing one.

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Barcelona: Van hits crowds in Ramblas tourist area

A van has ploughed into crowds in Barcelona's Las Ramblas tourist area.

Spanish police say several people have been injured in a "massive crash", while emergency services are urging people to stay away from the area around Plaça de Catalunya.

Reports from the scene say people are taking cover in nearby shops and cafes.

Reuters news agency reports that emergency services have requested the closure of local metro and train stations.

El Pais newspaper said the driver of the vehicle had fled on foot after mowing down dozens of people.

Steven Turner, who works in the area, told the BBC: "People in my office saw a van ramming into people on Las Ramblas.

"I saw about three or four people lying on the ground."

"There are lots of ambulances and armed police with assault rifles around now."

Details of this incident are still unclear, but vehicles have been used to ram into crowds in a series of attacks across Europe since July last year.

Aamer Anwar said he was walking down Las Ramblas, which was "jam-packed" with tourists.

"All of a sudden, I just sort of heard a crashing noise and the whole street just started to run, screaming. I saw a woman right next to me screaming for her kids," he told Sky News.

"Police were very, very quickly there, police officers with guns, batons, everywhere. Then the whole street started getting pushed back.

"Police officers who got there just started screaming at people to move back, move back."

Las Ramblas

• Central boulevard that runs 1.2km (0.75 miles) through the centre of Barcelona

• Runs from the city's Plaça de Catalunya (Catalonia Square) to the Christopher Columbus monument at the seafront.

• Popular with tourists because of its market stalls, bars and restaurants

• Barcelona city council restricted traffic flow because of heavy pedestrian use of the street
• BBC NEWS