AR15.com, the biggest gun forum in the world, was deplatformed on Monday by web hosting company GoDaddy.

“ARFCOM IS DOWN. We’ve been booted from GoDaddy and are looking for an alternative solution,” the site announced Monday afternoon on Twitter.

The swift termination by internet host GoDaddy forced AR15.com’s leadership to think on their feet and quickly create a temporary URL so “freedom lovers and firearm enthusiasts” could continue to access the information and resources on the site.

Instead of offering specifics about kicking the gun site off the internet, GoDaddy merely claimed that AR15.com violated its terms of service, which resulted in instant termination.

“On Monday, January 11, 2021, I received notice from our site registrar that AR15.com had violated their terms of service and that AR15.com would be shut down immediately,” President and Co-Founder of the gun site Juan Avila told The Federalist in a statement. “The registrar’s decision to de-platform AR15.com was final and no method to appeal was offered.”

“It remains unclear specifically what content allegedly violated the registrar’s terms of service,” he added.

As a general rule we shy away from political discussions, and gun discussions for that matter. The gun community is much more diverse than it is given credit for, but still doesn’t represent as wide a swath as the knife community. We try to avoid alienating the latter in support of the former. Or, to put it in the words of a knifemaker friend who wants to stay anonymous, “Liberals buy knives too”.

That said, what starts in the gun world, often ends up spilling over into the knife industry. For example, Hogue Knives got caught up in Obama’s “Operation Choke Point” which was used to cut funding off to companies engaged in legal, Constitutionally protected commerce.

Wells Fargo Denies Hogue Knives Banking Services Over Weapons Concern

While I am sympathetic to the position that private companies can serve who they wish, the internet has become more of a utility than a private service. and this Orwellian orgy of cancellations is getting quite chilling.