Christian Charities urged to ‘Risk Assess’ cyber vulnerability after ‘David and Goliath’ battle

PRESS RELEASE

15 April 2025

A UK Christian charity is urging all charity trustees to urgently risk assess their ‘cyber vulnerability’ after an unsubstantiated attack on their ministry caused Go Daddy, their cyber host, to unilaterally ‘terminate’ their website leading to loss of income and restrictions on ministry.

Anglican Mainstream (AM), a leading Anglican online news service, was informed on February 28 that Go Daddy had received one general complaint about ‘potential breach of copyright’ after it had uploaded links to news articles for educational purposes. Such action is allowed under UK media law. For the past 22 years, AM has posted daily news and weekly summaries of church and society news on its www.anglicanmainstream.org website. In over two decades, never has AM received a complaint related to copyright.

Go Daddy, which has consistently refused to detail under what specific law their action was justified, had received one email from a person claiming to represent NLA Media Access.  NLA sells copyright licenses to charities and education providers, when needed. NLA did not claim to represent any news agency whose article they listed, or confirm it was acting on specific client instructions. Neither had it previously successfully contacted AM direct with any copyright concerns – or to sell them one of their licenses. NLA subsequently claimed to have sent a previous email.

However, by way of summary trial and execution – and without hearing AM’s side, Go Daddy, said, via email: “We appreciate your business, but due to the nature and scope of the infringement that we’ve identified, we have no choice but to terminate your use of our hosting services for this website. This suspension is permanent and there are no reactivation options available.”

Go Daddy also informed AM that hundreds of posts that they had hosted over the years had been destroyed – thereby denying AM’s lawyers any opportunity to counterclaim any copyright breach or, to present a legal defence.  In short, all evidence has been destroyed.

The charity’s website is a major source of income.  Termination of the website would have a significant impact on its annual £16,000 income, plus the restriction of its educational ministry – regularly viewed by over 800 people daily, worldwide.  AM trustees sought legal advice from leading religious discrimination Barrister Paul Diamond, and due to the loss of income and trade restrictions, immediately sought a replacement website host.  This has now been secured and relaunched – but at additional cost to the charity.

AM trustees believe the copyright claims – of which there is now no evidence, could be a smokescreen for political action. Since the beginning of March, the charity has repeatedly sought clarification from NLA Media Access as to whom it formally represents and, whether they were acting on instructions from a real UK news source or, from a Third-Party member of the public, or group, wishing to restrict the charity’s traditional views on marriage/sexuality.  Such was the overall genre of the posts in question. No explanation or defence has been forthcoming.  AM are concerned that they are being discriminated against because of their religious beliefs.

Canon Dr Chris Sugden, Chairman of AM said: “AM clearly attracted the attention of progressives and revisionists concerned with sexuality issues. This was a deliberate and planned takedown and we have no appeal or recourse to Go Daddy.  Over two decades, we have posted sections from thousands of news articles, each time with a full link to the source, often with a scientific, sociological, and/or theological critique – as is allowed under UK media law. We’ve never had any complaint from any news agency before.  Though, given all the articles relate to a traditional view of marriage and, the impact of current cultural expressions of sexuality on society, it seems clear to us that this is a politically and religiously motivated attack on a small charity, using the heavy hand of media law threat. Over the past 22 years, I, and many of the AM trustees have regularly been interviewed by journalists from the news agencies which NLA Media list. We have good and professional relations with each of them.

“But NLA media know we are a small charity, and that taking a major company to the High Court is not something we can do with our income. Plus, Go Daddy clearly had no interest whatsoever in investigating the allegations. They simply chose to believe what was said and terminated us. In a single click they deleted decades of archived articles which hundreds of researchers, church leaders and mission bosses globally use to resource their ministries and studies.

“This is a modern-day case of ‘David and Goliath’ – but we are determined to take this to the Small Claims Court for damages.  More importantly than money, we will ask the Court to order ‘full disclosure’ from Go Daddy, and NLA Media, including all email correspondence, as to who was the original instigator of this action. We believe full disclosure of the facts will reveal this was a calculated, political attack against Anglican Mainstream. We have full confidence that under UK law, we will see justice triumph. We know who won in the David verses Goliath battle!”

AM says this is not the first cyber-related attack on a UK Christian charity in the last year.  They are aware that at least two other major Christian organisations have been hit with a serious, targeted virus attack on their main data systems, each requiring expert technical and legal intervention to restore online ministry.  Canon Sugden added: “We are urging all trustees of Christian charities to ‘risk assess’ rigorously their readiness for any cyber-attack, and to have detailed plans in place to remedy the position as soon as possible. For us, the loss of income, and the time delay in securing an alternative web host, and professional fees cost the charity around £9,500. We hope that our treatment, at the hands of a ‘cyber-Goliath,’ will be a warning to other small charities.”

• To access the newly hosted AM website, visit www.anglicanmainstream.org

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For further information/interview:

Canon Dr Chris Sugden  07808 297043       sugdenmainstream@gmail.com

Chairman, Anglican Mainstream

Revd Paul Eddy  07923 653781           

paul@pauleddy.uk

PR Consultant to Anglican Mainstream

Editor’s Notes:

http://www.anglicanmainstream.org : The Anglican Mainstream website serves as an information resource for orthodox Anglicans and other Christians, by posting excerpts of articles and other material, from a variety of sources, on Christianity, church, and culture daily, and original reports and comment from the Editor and other writers. Anglican Mainstream is a registered charity, number 1111739.

http://www.nlamediaaccess.com : NLA media access, previously the Newspaper Licensing Agency was established by the UK national newspapers in 1996 to manage newspaper copyright collection. The NLA works on behalf of the UK’s newspapers and licenses organisations to make paper and digital copies of newspaper content. The NLA currently licenses over 150,000 businesses and organisations ranging from large government bodies, plcs, and limited companies to partnerships and public relations agencies.