Electronic Frontier Foundation Slams Tech Firms for Barring Neo-Nazis

A digital rights group based in San Francisco on

Thursday criticised several Internet companies for removing neo-Nazi groups from servers and services, saying the actions were "dangerous" and threatened free expression online.

GoDaddy, Alphabet's Google, security firm Cloudflareand other technology companies moved this week to block hate groups after weekend violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, where white nationalists had gathered to protest removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee from a park.

"We strongly believe that what GoDaddy, Google, and Cloudflare did here was dangerous," Cindy Cohn, executive director of Electronic Frontier Foundation, wrote in a blog post along with two other staffers.

The blog post reflected years-long tension in Silicon Valley, where many company executives want to distance themselves from extremists but are concerned that picking and choosing what is acceptable on their platforms could invite more regulation from governments.