Go Daddy Supports SOPA, Loses Thousands of Domains

The number should be looked at with temperance – on Friday, 20,034 domains transferred to Go Daddy, making for a net loss of 1,020. For a company that boasts 50 million domains, calling the loss inconsequential would be an understatement, especially when you consider that those numbers don’t take into account new domains created or domains deleted. For all that, Go Daddy CEO Warren Adelman was moved enough to issue a statement coming out against SOPA while an interview with TechCrunch, stating, “Go Daddy will support [SOPA] when and if the Internet community supports it." So, everything is cool now, right?

Not quite. Later in the interview, Adelman stopped short of saying the company would officially reverse its position with Congress. As you might imagine, that Internet community was not pleased, with many deriding the statement as a PR stunt. The December 29th boycott is after all being pushed for on sites like reddit, however whether or not the numbers of transfers will add up to anything of consequence remains to be seen.

So, why is a huge and growing Internet company coming out in support of a bill that would put potentially draconian controls on the Internet? It’s hard to say for sure, nevertheless the fact that Go Daddy, in accordance with the current version of SOPA in the House Judiciary Committee, would be exempt from takedown in accordance with SOPA has many eyebrows raised.