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Nicholas Lim (born ) is a technology entrepreneur and software developer based in
Vancouver, Washington Vancouver ( ) is a city on the north bank of the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington, located in Clark County, Washington, Clark County. Founded in 1825 and incorporated in 1857, Vancouver had a population of 190, ...
. Lim and his companies provide services to
alt-tech Alt-tech is a collection of social networking services and Internet service providers popular among the alt-right, far-right, and others who espouse extremism or fringe theories, typically because they employ looser content moderation than m ...
,
far-right Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on the far end of the ...
and
neo-Nazi Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazism, Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and Supremacism#Racial, racial supremacy (ofte ...
websites, such as ''
The Daily Stormer ''The Daily Stormer'' is an American neo-Nazi commentary and message board website that advocates for a Second Holocaust, second genocide of Jews. It is part of the alt-right movement. Its editor, Andrew Anglin, founded the outlet on July 4, ...
'', a neo-Nazi message board website,
8chan 8kun, previously called 8chan, Infinitechan or Infinitychan (stylized as ∞chan), is an imageboard website composed of user-created message boards. An owner moderates each board, with minimal interaction from site administration. The site ...
, the home of the far-right
QAnon QAnon ( ) is a far-right conspiracy theories in United States politics, American political conspiracy theory and political movement that originated in 2017. QAnon centers on fabricated claims made by an anonymous individual or individuals kno ...
conspiracy theory, and
Kiwi Farms Kiwi Farms, formerly known as CWCki Forums ( ), is a web forum that facilitates the discussion and harassment of online figures and communities. Their targets are often subject to organized group trolling and stalking, as well as doxing a ...
, a
harassment Harassment covers a wide range of behaviors of an offensive nature. It is commonly understood as behavior that demeans, humiliates, and intimidates a person, and it is characteristically identified by its unlikelihood in terms of social and ...
and
anti-trans Transphobia consists of negative attitudes, feelings, or actions towards transgender or transsexual people, or wikt:transness, transness in general. Transphobia can include fear, aversion, hatred, violence or anger towards people who do not co ...
forum. In 2017, Lim founded BitMitigate, a website security company which in 2019 was acquired by
Epik Epik is an American Domain name registrar, domain registrar and Web hosting service, web hosting company based in Sheridan, Wyoming. Founded by Rob Monster in 2009, Epik branded itself as the "Swiss bank of domains" and became known as one of the ...
, an America based registrar and hosting company company. In 2019 he founded VanwaTech, a webhosting and website security company.


Career

One of Lim's early projects was OrcaTech, a service he says was intended to be used by website owners to test their websites' abilities to withstand distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. The website was also able to be used to levy DDoS attacks against others; Lim said he never investigated whether it was used in harmful ways. After dropping out of college, Lim founded BitMitigate in 2017 in Vancouver, Washington, when he was nineteen years old. The company provided website security services, including protection from DDoS attacks. Beginning in August 2017, BitMitigate provided security services to ''
The Daily Stormer ''The Daily Stormer'' is an American neo-Nazi commentary and message board website that advocates for a Second Holocaust, second genocide of Jews. It is part of the alt-right movement. Its editor, Andrew Anglin, founded the outlet on July 4, ...
'', a
neo-Nazi Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazism, Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and Supremacism#Racial, racial supremacy (ofte ...
website which had just been denied service by
Cloudflare Cloudflare, Inc., is an American company that provides content delivery network services, cybersecurity, DDoS mitigation, wide area network services, reverse proxies, Domain Name Service, ICANN-accredited domain registration, and other se ...
after publishing an article mocking Heather Heyer, the victim of a vehicle ramming attack at the white supremacist
Unite the Right rally The Unite the Right rally was a White supremacy#United States, white supremacist rally that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia, from August 11 to 12, 2017. Marchers included members of the alt-right, neo-Confederates, neo-fascists, whi ...
in
Charlottesville Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city in Virginia, United States. It is the seat of government of Albemarle County, which surrounds the city, though the two are separate legal entities. It is named after Quee ...
,
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...
earlier that month. Lim contacted ''The Daily Stormer''s founder,
Andrew Anglin Andrew Barret Anglin (born July 27, 1984) is an American neo-Nazi, conspiracy theorist, and editor of the website '' The Daily Stormer''. Through his website, Anglin combines Nazi ideology with Internet memes originating primarily from 4chan ...
, after hearing he was having trouble staying online, and offered him free use of BitMitigate's services. Lim told
ProPublica ProPublica (), legally Pro Publica, Inc., is a nonprofit investigative journalism organization based in New York City. ProPublica's investigations are conducted by its staff of full-time reporters, and the resulting stories are distributed to ne ...
in August 2017 that he thought offering services to ''The Daily Stormer'' "would really get my service out there". In 2018, Lim began to be mentored by
Rob Monster Robert W. Monster (born 1966 or 1967) is a Dutch-American technology executive. He is the founder, former chief executive officer, and former chairman of Epik, a domain registrar and web host known for providing services to websites that host ...
, the founder and CEO of the web services company
Epik Epik is an American Domain name registrar, domain registrar and Web hosting service, web hosting company based in Sheridan, Wyoming. Founded by Rob Monster in 2009, Epik branded itself as the "Swiss bank of domains" and became known as one of the ...
. BitMitigate was still providing services to ''The Daily Stormer'' in February 2019, when they were acquired by Epik. As a result of the acquisition, Lim became Epik's chief technology officer. By that time, both BitMitigate and Epik had become known for servicing
far-right Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on the far end of the ...
and neo-Nazi websites which had been denied service by other internet services providers. Monster said in a 2021 interview with
NPR National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...
that when Epik discovered they were providing services to ''The Daily Stormer'', they stopped doing so. Monster said that Epik's connection to the site was "regrettable", and that "the greatest cost of acquiring BitMitigate was not the amount of cash that we paid to buy the technology, but the entanglement." In August 2019, BitMitigate began providing services to 8chan, an
imageboard An imageboard is a type of Internet forum that focuses on the posting of images, often alongside text and discussion. The first imageboards were created in Japan as an extension of the textboard concept. These sites later inspired the creation of ...
forum that is home to the far-right
QAnon QAnon ( ) is a far-right conspiracy theories in United States politics, American political conspiracy theory and political movement that originated in 2017. QAnon centers on fabricated claims made by an anonymous individual or individuals kno ...
conspiracy theory and which has been linked to multiple mass shootings. BitMitigate took 8chan as a customer shortly after the forum was dropped by Cloudflare following three mass shootings ( Christchurch, New Zealand, in March; Poway, California, in April; El Paso, Texas, in August) in which the perpetrators each used 8chan to spread extremist messages. BitMitigate's decision to provide services to 8chan resulted in Voxility, a web services company that had been renting servers to BitMitigate and Epik, terminating their relationship with both companies. This brought 8chan back offline, as well as some other Epik customers, and Monster decided to stop providing services to 8chan shortly afterwards.


VanwaTech

In approximately August 2019, Lim left Epik and announced that he had created VanwaTech, a
web hosting A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that hosts websites for clients, i.e. it offers the facilities required for them to create and maintain a site and makes it accessible on the World Wide Web. Companies providing web ho ...
and website security company also based in Vancouver, Washington. Through VanwaTech, Lim again began providing services to ''The Daily Stormer'' and to
8chan 8kun, previously called 8chan, Infinitechan or Infinitychan (stylized as ∞chan), is an imageboard website composed of user-created message boards. An owner moderates each board, with minimal interaction from site administration. The site ...
. According to Lim, he remained a partial owner of Epik after his departure as CTO. Jim Watkins, who owns 8chan, is also reportedly involved in VanwaTech. On September 6, 2022, Lim confirmed that VanwaTech had begun providing CDN services to the forum
Kiwi Farms Kiwi Farms, formerly known as CWCki Forums ( ), is a web forum that facilitates the discussion and harassment of online figures and communities. Their targets are often subject to organized group trolling and stalking, as well as doxing a ...
, a site previously dropped by
Cloudflare Cloudflare, Inc., is an American company that provides content delivery network services, cybersecurity, DDoS mitigation, wide area network services, reverse proxies, Domain Name Service, ICANN-accredited domain registration, and other se ...
and DDoS-Guard following protests related to the
doxxing Doxing or doxxing is the act of publicly providing personally identifiable information about an individual or organization, usually via the Internet and without their consent. Historically, the term has been used to refer to both the aggregati ...
and harassment of Clara Sorrenti. Lim stated, "We maintain a firm commitment to our role as a neutral provider of internet services and not an internet censor."


Views

Lim has said that his choices to provide services to far-right clients who have been denied services by other internet providers are not based in support of their views, but a "maximalist" belief in
freedom of speech Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The rights, right to freedom of expression has been r ...
. Lim has said that he believes restrictions on online speech are a greater danger to the United States than extremist violence, and that "we are one foot away from ''
Nineteen Eighty-Four ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' (also published as ''1984'') is a dystopian novel and cautionary tale by the English writer George Orwell. It was published on 8 June 1949 by Secker & Warburg as Orwell's ninth and final completed book. Thematically ...
''". William Turton and Joshua Brustein writing in ''
Bloomberg Businessweek ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'' (and before that ''Business Week'' and ''The Business Week''), is an American monthly business magazine published 12 times a year. The magazine debuted in New York City in Septembe ...
'' said of Lim's defense of his extremist clientele, "At best, his apolitical framing comes across as naive; at worst, as preposterous
gaslighting Gaslighting is the manipulation of someone into questioning their perception of reality. The term derives from the 1944 film ''Gaslight (1944 film), Gaslight'' and became popular in the mid-2010s. Some mental health experts have expressed c ...
". In an April 2021 interview, Lim expressed intent to pivot in some ways away from serving predominantly extremist organizations, and instead to focus on providing services to
pornographic Pornography (colloquially called porn or porno) is sexually suggestive material, such as a picture, video, text, or audio, intended for sexual arousal. Made for consumption by adults, pornographic depictions have evolved from cave paintings ...
websites.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lim, Nicholas 1990s births Businesspeople from Vancouver, Washington Chief technology officers Computer programmers Neo-Nazism in the United States Living people Technology company founders