GoDaddy takedown

EMAILS: [email protected]
EXECS: Andrew Low Ah Kee (COO) https://twitter.com/alowahkee, Karen Tillman (Comms) https://twitter.com/ktillman
CEO: [email protected] https://twitter.com/sh0kunin
OTHER: [email protected], [email protected]

I am writing today about a domain with registrar listed as Godaddy.com for: 8KUN.US.  The owner of this domain Jim Watkins is using it to get around a suspension of their domain 8KUN.NET until it can be successfully transferred elsewhere. I would urge you to read the following carefully before taking a decision on the matter. Also note that several of your pier domain registrars including name.com, web.com, and Tucows have decide to not do business with Jim Watkins. I will also point out, and you can confirm this with a web search, that media attention on this story grows by the day.

IP in question: 62.113.113.103 via VDSINA.RU, is a particularly well known Russian crime-based hosting facility often seen on spamhaus and other malware block lists.

8KUN.NET was active before Tucows suspended their domain.  They were originally deplatformed in August by Tucows as 8KUN.NET was nothing more than an obvious copy of the original and notorious 8chan or 8CH.NET

Throughout 2019, three terrorist manifestos were uploaded to 8chan. The terrorists in Christchurch, New Zealand, Poway, California, and El Paso, Texas, used 8chan to upload their manifestos. Between all three attacks, over 70 people died. Here is an archive of the ChristChurch massacre with the original post by the shooter Brenton Tarrant to give you some perspective:  https://archive.st/archive/2019/3/8ch.net/7s0s/8ch.net/pol/res/12916717.html

WaPo reported that 8chan is an incubator for mass shooters: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/08/04/three-mass-shootings-this-year-began-with-hateful-screed-chan-its-founder-calls-it-terrorist-refuge-plain-sight/

As a result, 8chan was removed from many major American networks. It was deplatformed by Tucows, CloudFlare and Epik in August; and from Zare (UK) as "8kun" in October.  Since then many others, but they are now using your registrar to hide behind yet another domain.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/isabeltogoh/2019/08/05/tucows-drops-8chan-domain-registration-after-el-paso-shooting/#294385f9ffbf
https://blog.cloudflare.com/terminating-service-for-8chan/

All competent observers agree that 8kun is no different than 8chan, and is a bad faith rebrand to try to evade bans.

https://www.cnet.com/news/controversial-site-8chan-tries-to-return-under-8kun-name/
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/zmj8y4/inside-the-war-to-kill-off-8chan-and-crush-qanon

Here is a live shot of 8KUN.US showing how it looks identical to 8ch.net but with a new logo: https://i.imgur.com/IO286XB.png - Compare to 8ch: https://i.imgur.com/abX8tuY.jpg

8chan was known to host and promote content that is in violation of your acceptable use policy, this includes regular images and video of murder, including the 51 victims of the Christchurch massacre. Most notably 8chan violated on a daily basis your own rule:

- Promotes, encourages or engages in terrorism, violence against people, animals, or property;

RE: from: https://ca.godaddy.com/legal-agreements

8chan's owner, Jim Watkins, and his son, Ron Watkins, have become more and more desperate to find partners who will do business with them. It would not be a good look for your company allow that to continue.

The FBI considers Qanon supporters a domestic terrorism threat and 8CH/8KUN is ground zero for these users: https://news.yahoo.com/fbi-documents-conspiracy-theories-terrorism-160000507.html

I hope that you will not allow them to do this to you, as allowing them services has already indirectly caused real people to lose their lives around the world. 8chan is a breeding ground for extremism, and is reaching a public safety threat not far from that posed by ISIS or other terrorist groups. We urge you to stand against the type of “free speech” Jim Watkins and 8chan/8kun are offering. I hope you also consider carefully that members of US congress have indicated they may pass a law that changes how Section 230 would apply to hate speech and to make tech companies liable. This legislation is coming. You have an opportunity to be on the right side of history with this issue. We hope you’ll take it. Choosing to support these people will be extremely unfavourable when the next mass shooter leaves his manifesto on 8KUN.US.