Fact check: Antifa.com redirects to Joe Biden's website, but Biden campaign not involved

Miriam Fauzia, USA TODAY•September 3, 2020

The claim: Antifa.com redirects to Joe Biden's campaign website

Viral Facebook posts insinuate ties between Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and the left-wing, anti-fascist political movement antifa.

"if you go to Antifa.com, it takes you directly to joe bidens webpage. ... whats that tell ya ... try it yourself," Facebook user Johnathan Thurman wrote in a post that has been shared more than 80,000 times since Aug. 28. Several other Facebook posts claim the same, and videos show the redirect to viewers.

Thurman, whom USA TODAY reached out to via Facebook Messenger, said he knew no further details about the redirect. - ADVERTISEMENT -


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Breaking down the domain's history

A search through the digital internet archive Wayback Machine reveals the antifa.com domain has existed since 1999, although no content appears until Dec. 4, 2000. It is unclear who registered the domain, but the content appears to be a predominantly European anti-fascist newsletter available in English and Dutch.

The domain lapsed. It was renewed April 24, 2002, according to domain registration databases Whois.net and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers Lookup. It was never made into an active website.

On Nov. 21, 2008, the domain was offered for $14,410 and remained on sale until May 6, 2017, at which point, a blank page replaced the sale offer. The blank page persisted until another "domain for sale" notice appeared Aug. 10, 2019.

The website was probably bought before or around May 31. Twitter user The Rude Pundit noticed the domain's sale price was nearly $37,000.

"We Are Antifa: Join Us & Take Action Antifa.com," declares text at the top of the home page. Hashtags sympathetic to George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement are also visible. Below, a symbol used by the original anti-fascist group, Antifaschistische Aktion, founded by the Communist Party of Germany in 1932, appears in red, black and white.

Days later, more information was added in an extensive paragraph rebutting President Donald Trump's tweet May 31 vowing to designate "ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization." For a brief time, the website redirected to a YouTube channel before announcing June 25 that an updated website was coming soon.
Biden's site gets tied to antifa

Traffic redirecting to JoeBiden.com began around Aug. 8 before stopping Aug. 13.

On Aug. 16, the domain resumed but forwarded instead to a website called "It's Going Down."

On Aug. 21, traffic redirected to KamalaHarris.org, which was being forwarded to JoeBiden.com. On Aug. 22, it went back to "It's Going Down"; and on Aug. 28, it returned to KamalaHarris.org before settling on JoeBiden.com on Aug. 31.

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has condemned protest violence, no matter what the political ideology.

Domains and redirection

Antifa.com has been registered through NameCheap, a Phoenix-based domain registrar – a company that manages internet domain names, as well as IP address assignments for those domains – since April 2002.

Redirecting a domain to any website is not hard to do. According to Mashable writer Matt Binder, all it requires is "that you type in the URL you want your domain to redirect to in your registrar’s administration panel."

Since NameCheap offers a privacy protection service to its clients, it is impossible to know who exactly owns the domain and set the redirection. USA TODAY was unable to reach NameCheap CEO Richard Kirkendall for comment.
Biden not connected

Matt Hill, deputy national press secretary for the Biden campaign, referred USA TODAY to a tweet Monday from Biden's digital director, Rob Flaherty.

"So whoever owns http://antifa.com is redirecting it to our website as a troll. … The VP very obviously has/wants nothing to do with fringe groups," Flaherty said.
Our ruling: Missing context

We rate this claim as MISSING CONTEXT. It is true the antifa.com domain redirects to JoeBiden.com. It is unknown who exactly owns the domain and has been redirecting traffic to the Biden campaign's website. The claim lacks context given that the Biden campaign denies any association with the antifa.com website.
Our fact-check sources:


Antifa.com via Wayback Machine, Dec. 4, 2000.


Antifa.com via Wayback Machine, Nov. 21, 2008.


Antifa.com via Wayback Machine, Aug. 10, 2019.


Antifa.com via Wayback Machine, May 31.


Antifa.com via Wayback Machine, Aug. 8.


Antifa.com via Wayback Machine, Aug. 16.


Antifa.com via Wayback Machine, Aug. 21.


Antifa.com via Wayback Machine, Aug. 22.


Antifa.com via Wayback Machine, Aug. 28.


Antifa.com via Wayback Machine, Aug. 31.


NameCheap, Jan. 11, 2017, "Where is your company located?"


Cloudflare, "What is a Domain Name Registrar?"


Vox, June 8, "Antifa, explained."


The Rude Pundit, June 1, Twitter thread.


NameCheap, "WhoisGuard."


Donald J. Trump, May 31, Twitter thread.


Mashable, Aug. 12, "No, this doesn't mean that Joe Biden owns antifa.com."


Rob Flaherty, Aug. 31, Twitter thread.


New York Times, June. 29, 2019, "Trump Consultant Is Trolling Democrats With Biden Site That Isn’t Biden’s."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: Antifa.com redirects to Joe Biden site; he's not involved