Neo-Nazi website asks readers to target funeral of Heather Heyer who died in Charlottesville violence
One of America’s most prominent neo-Nazi websites has apparently ordered its readers to harass the funeral of Heather Heyer, the civil rights worker who was killed during the disorder in the Virginian town of Charlottesville.
The Daily Stormer helped organise the ultra-right wing rally where a car was driven into counter-demonstrators, killing the 32-year-old paralegal and hurting 19 other people.
James Fields, 20, from Ohio, has been charged with murder.
The website has since moved to the dark web – meaning it is not available on normal internet browsers – after its registration was cancelled by GoDaddy Inc and denied by Google.
The companies said their terms of service banned websites from inciting violence.
But they removed it, a senior member of the Daily Stormer called for “people on the ground” at Ms Heyer’s funeral.
Andrew Auernheimer, known by the online pseudonym ‘weev’, instructed users on the do “some research” on the ceremony.
He said: “What’s the location of the fat skank’s funeral … get on it, e-sleuths. I’d do it myself but slammed with current logistical issues. I want to get people on the ground there.”
SCOOP: "Weev", the system administrator for The Daily Stormer is planning on sending Nazis to #HeatherHeyer funeral. #Charlottesville pic.twitter.com/opXP1WvPV1
— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) August 14, 2017
A screenshot of the comments was posted to Twitter by Laura Loomer, a contributor to The Rebel, a conservative new media outlet.
The Daily Stormer regularly used to post racist content and mocked the death of Ms Heyer. It had sections labelled ‘race war’ and ‘Jewish problem’.
The website also used anti-Semitism to explain Mr Trump’s condemnation of the Charlottesville violence, which came before he defended some of the right wing protesters at a recent press conference.
After going offline, the site’s founder Andrew Anglin promised the site would soon be back online.
“The Daily Stormer will be live in internet prison with drug dealers, terrorists and perverts, which is where we’ve been exiled to, for all time,” he told Vice News. “We should have a real domain online within 24 hours. If it gets shut down again, people will know we are on the black [dark] web.”