GoDaddy

Arizona
Website Hosting

Risk Level:

Rating - Danger
High Risk

Summary:

GoDaddy has de-platformed multiple customers who have conservative or religious views. There are no explicit religious or viewpoint protections for employees in its nondiscrimination policy, even as the company has used its corporate reputation to support ideological agendas. GoDaddy endorsed the Equality Act. It has not clearly used its corporate funds to support various ideological groups hostile to freedom of expression but has demonstrated a willingness to terminate clients with conservative political/religious views. For this reason, GoDaddy receives a "High Risk" rating.

Criteria
Risk Level
Rationale
Corporate Weaponization
Criteria

Has denied service to customers, suppliers, or vendors due to their political views or religious beliefs OR corporately boycotts, divests, or sanctions regions, people groups, or industries.

Risk Level
Rationale

GoDaddy de-platformed a website owned by Texas Right to Life after a “whistleblower” attempted to help enforce the recent Texas heartbeat abortion bill (1). It gave Texas Right to Life 24 hours to find a new domain. GoDaddy de-platformed the popular Second Amendment forum AR15.com over allegations that individuals using the site had encouraged violence (2). GoDaddy also vets vendors for their LGBTQ policies (3).

Criteria

Charitable giving (including employee matching programs) policies or practices discriminate against charitable organizations based on views or religious beliefs.

Risk Level
Rationale

GoDaddy requires recipients of its charitable donation program to be “to be politically and religiously neutral” (1). There are no clear guidelines as to who is and is not eligible to receive donations through GoDaddy’s various donation channels.

Criteria

Employment policies fail to protect against discrimination based on political affiliation/views and/or religion.

Risk Level
Rationale

GoDaddy’s discrimination policy says it “will not tolerate any illegal discrimination or harassment of any kind,” but there are no explicit religious or viewpoint protections (1).

Corporate Governance and Public Policy
Criteria

Uses corporate reputation to support ideological causes and/or organizations hostile to freedom of expression.

Risk Level
Rationale

GoDaddy has signed open letters supporting the Equality Act and opposing women’s and girls’ gender-specific sports (1)(2). GoDaddy added a unique .gay domain for websites to use in order to create virtual LGBTQ rainbow Pride flags on their pages (3). GoDaddy opposed the Florida Parental Rights in Education Act, which prohibits teaching gender identity and sexual orientation in schools to kids in K-3rd grade (4).

Criteria

Uses corporate funds to advance ideological causes, organizations, or policies hostile to freedom of expression.

Risk Level
Rationale

Although there is limited publicly available information about GoDaddy’s corporate giving, including in their sustainability/ESG report, GoDaddy does have an employee volunteer program (1) (2). It also partners with Association for Enterprise Opportunity, though it is unclear exactly who it is supporting through these donations (3).

Criteria

Uses corporate political contributions for ideological, non-business purposes.

Risk Level
N/A
Rationale

GoDaddy’s PAC has not been operational since the 2013–2014 election cycle (1) (2).

All links were last accessed and all information was updated on:
March 23, 2023

Company reports are intended for educational use only. Full Disclaimer

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