It’s a boycott of viral proportions.
GoDaddy.com, one of the largest domain registrars on the Internet, stands to potentially lose thousands of customers…after the company gave and then repealed its support for a controversial bill before Congress that many fear could heavily restrict the web.
On the eve of what has been dubbed “Dump Go Daddy Day,” imgur.com — pronounced “imager,” it’s one of the largest image hosting sites in the world, responsible for an astonishing 28 terabytes of bandwidth and nearly 200 million page views today alone — has already changed its registry entries, foreshadowing the potential negative effect of a boycott set to begin Thursday morning.
GoDaddy.com originally supported the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) — which opponents say will hinder free speech and infringe on first amendment rights — but quickly recanted its position when the call of a boycott circulated.
“The outcry kind of forced our hand,” imgur founder and owner Alan Schaaf told FoxNews.com. “I’m against the SOPA act and imgur as a company is against it. We just feel it is terrible that GoDaddy.com would support this legislation.”
SOPA would make websites responsible for illegal copyright content uploaded by any user, making it difficult if not impossible for companies like Imgur, YouTube, and Facebook to operate.
“If SOPA were to pass, Imgur would not be able to exist,” Schaaf said, “We survive on user-generated content. It would be impossible for us to police the amount of traffic we get for what is or isn’t copyrighted material. It’s just not possible.”
