Go Daddy pulls SOPA support

After backlash from customers, Go Daddy announced Friday that it is no longer supporting the Stop Online Piracy Act.

In a company statement, the domain registrar said that it has removed previous postings about its position to “eliminate confusion.”

“In changing its position, Go Daddy remains steadfast in its promise to support the security and stability of the Internet,” the company said in a statement. “In an effort to eliminate any confusion about its reversal on SOPA though, Jones has removed blog postings that had outlined areas of the bill Go Daddy did support.”

The company had been catching some heat from customers who disagreed with the company’s position on the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act.

Go Daddy customers had been calling for a boycott on Reddit — a service that has also been opposing SOPA. The site has been a breeding ground for Web movements in the past.

Many users said that they would change registrars, including Cheezburger Network CEO Ben Huh. Huh’s company has more than 1,000 domain names registered with Go Daddy, he said in a tweet.

In reaction to the news, Huh congratulated SOPA’s opponents for prompting Go Daddy’s change of heart.

“Congrats Internet. You did it!,” he wrote. “@GoDaddy’s new CEO drops support for SOPA!”

Go Daddy and its chief counsel Christine Jones have been working with lawmakers for years on online piracy legislation, and Jones said in a statement that it will continue to ”preserve the intellectual property rights of third parties.”

Ultimately, though, it’s clear that Go Daddy heard Reddit and the feedback from its customers. It was certainly enough for Go Daddy’s new CEO, Warren Adelman to officially withdraw support for the measure that the company has worked so hard to help craft.

“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,” Adelman said in a release.