SOPA Bill 2012: GoDaddy Revokes Support for Controversial Bill

GoDaddy.com has pulled its support of SOPA, aka the Stop Online Privacy Act, in the face of withering criticism and threatened boycotts.

On Friday, the popular domain registration company based in Scottsdale, Ariz., issued a statement withdrawing its backing for the controversial bill currently before the U.S. Congress.

Thursday brought criticism from customers of the company - who said they would move their domains in protest of its SOPA support - and competitors like NameCheap.com, which offered a discount for GoDaddy users to move their domains to Los Angeles-based NameCheap.

Fighting online piracy is of the utmost importance, which is why Go Daddy has been working to help craft revisions to this legislation -- but we can clearly do better, GoDaddy CEO Warren Adelman, said Friday. It's very important that all Internet stakeholders work together on this. Getting it right is worth the wait. Go Daddy will support it when and if the Internet community supports it.

The statement is a major turnaround from its previous position, which was outlined in a statement filed with the U.S. House of Representatives.

It is for these reasons that I'm still struggling with why some Internet companies oppose PROTECT IP and SOPA, the original statement said. There is no question that we need these added tools to counteract illegal foreign sites that are falling outside the jurisdiction of U.S. law enforcement.

NameCheap went on the attack quickly after the critiques emerged Thursday.

Unlike the competition, we oppose SOPA because we believe in internet freedom, NameCheap Tweeted. Transfer your domains over for $6.99 with code SOPASucks.