'Dump GoDaddy Day' Begins, Tens of Thousands Boycott Web Hosting Site
The “Dump GoDaddy” campaign officially began on Thursday, and reports suggest that almost 40,000 users have already boycotted the web hosting company.
The backlash follows Go Daddy's flip-flopping views on the Stop Online Piracy Act, which was presented before congress by Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas.
The bill, which was introduced Oct. 26, is designed to tackle online copyright infringement issues.
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It proposes that websites be held individually accountable when they are suspected of trafficking copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods.
Social networking websites like Twitter and YouTube would likely be affected, and would ultimately limit a user's ability to interact using pictures and video.
If SOPA is passed, U.S. law enforcement officials could go as far as obtaining court orders against those suspected website owners, but critics argue the terms are too ambiguous and infringe upon free speech.
GoDaddy.com, one of the biggest web hosting and internet domain registrar companies, was initially in favor of SOPA but quickly backtracked after calls to boycott began, according to Fox News.
The call to boycott came from “Fred,” a regular user of social networking site reddit.com who first expressed his disdain of GoDaddy's support of SOPA in a letter to the company.
"My heart was broken I've used them for years … I didn't like the generic letter they sent back to me so I posted a call to boycott. I didn't know it would catch on the way it did," Fred said.
While GoDaddy have attempted to be proactive by withdrawing their support of SOPA, users won't budge and many continue to boycott.
According to the Inquisitr, 72,000 registered users closed their GoDaddy accounts by Thursday, although this number is likely to increase.
GoDaddy, which is based in Scottsdale, Ariz., has yet to publicly address Thursday's boycott.
