What a holiday it’s been for GoDaddy, the domain registrar based in Arizona, USA, which boasts on its webiste that it manages more than 45 million domain names. In late December, it was announced on Reddit that GoDaddy was included in the planning stages, as well as being a lead supporter of SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act).
Subsequently, GoDaddy released statements in support of SOPA, leading to many companies cancelling their GoDaddy accounts.
The Stop Online Piracy Act is designed to help the government and the entertainment industry fight Internet piracy. It would allow politicians to create a blacklist that would then be used to block advertising services and payment services from those sites. Some say SOPA violates U.S. First Amendment rights by giving the government the power to shut down websites it believes to be in violation of SOPA.
News of GoDaddy’s SOPA support spread like wildfire across the web, and was followed by a proposed Boycott GoDaddy Day on Dec. 29, 2011. Two major supporters of the movement were Cheezburger CEO Ben Huh (yes, the people who brought you Lolcats have a CEO), and Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales.
Both announced that they would move their domains if GoDaddy continued its support of SOPA. On Christmas Day, GoDaddy lost 16,191 domains, and by three days later, had lost over 72,000 domains. That’s over $719,000 in annual revenue, or $3.5 million in five years.
Due to the backlash, GoDaddy has publicly pulled its support from SOPA. Warren Adelman, the company’s new chief executive officer, is now saying that “GoDaddy opposes SOPA,” meaning the Stop Online Piracy Act, which faces a House of Representatives committee vote next month.
In damage control mode, Adelman released a statement that made it clear GoDaddy is not simply withdrawing its support for the legislation. The company now opposes it.
“We have observed a spike in domain name transfers, which are running above normal rates and which we attribute to GoDaddy’s prior support for SOPA, which was reversed,” said Adelman. “GoDaddy opposes SOPA because the legislation has not fulfilled its basic requirement to build a consensus among stake-holders in the technology and Internet communities. Our company regrets the loss of any of our customers, who remain our highest priority, and we hope to repair those relationships and win back their business over time.”
Here are a few tweets found on Twitter regarding the GoDaddy/SOPA debacle:
“We will move our 1,000 domains off @GoDaddy unless you drop support of SOPA. We love you guys, but #SOPA-is-cancer to the Free Web.”
“Wow. All of my @godaddy domain transfers were just denied. They need written permission. Are you kidding me?”
“GoDaddy gets it name removed from The House’s list of SOPA supporters cnet.co/rJZXqx”
“Want another reason move your @GoDaddy domains? For every transfer, @namecheap will donate $1 to @EFF to fight #SOPA"
The GoDaddy/SOPA incident is a lesson that a brand exists outside of its service and visuals—a brand must act ethically in the interest of its customers. It’s not enough to change your position once consequences have surfaced. A brand, just like a person, must have opinions and beliefs that it stands behind, and that shouldn’t sway as easily as a dollar disappears.
Nico Taus and Frank Chartrand write on behalf of Bureau Group and designtalk.ca.
Posted by Laurel Myers
