After Twitter announced late Wednesday that it planned to overhaul its process for verifying accounts, the site started yanking that big blue check mark from a number of prominent far-right users, who proceeded to lose their minds in spectacular fashion. 
 
 Some, like Tim “Baked Alaska” Gionet, the former BuzzFeed staffer turned alt-right weirdo, were permanently banned. Gionet, apparently at wit’s end, dealt with the loss the only way he knew how: by livestreaming his breakdown an an In-N-Out Burger and randomly screaming at innocent passersby. 
 
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 But Laura Loomer, an ex-employee of Project Veritas, James O’Keefe’s right-wing sting operation, but who’s probably best known for crashing a New York City performance of “Julius Caesar” to own the libs, took the loss of her verification especially hard, suggesting, of course, that this is basically just how that movie about the Holocaust begins. 
 
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 When a verified Twitter user ironically responded that, perhaps, something happening on the internet is not at all like the genocide claimed the lives of six million Jews, Loomer doubled down magnificently: 
 
 Although neo-Nazi figures like Richard Spencer and Jason Kessler, who organized the white supremacist rally that turned deadly in Charlottesville, were stripped of their verification, they remain active on the site. So like most things Twitter does to appear like it’s addressing harassment and abuse on the site, the move so far seems mostly like an effort to stop appearing to tacitly endorse the worst people online—without actually barring them from the service that’s in no small part contributed to their rise. ||||| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. 
 
 / Updated By Chelsea Bailey 
 
 Conservative commentator Laura Loomer was banned from using Uber and Lyft after she posted a series of anti-Muslim tweets following the terrorist attack in New York. 
 
 A spokesman for the ride-hailing service Lyft confirmed Thursday that Loomer's account had been "deactivated" following her daylong tweetstorm that blamed Islam and Muslims for the deadly attack. 
 
 A representative for Uber also confirmed that Loomer was banned permanently from using the service. 
 
 Loomer launched into an anti-Muslim rant on Twitter Wednesday, calling for a new ride sharing company to be created that didn't employ Muslims, after it was revealed that Sayfullo Saipov, the suspect in the New York terror attack, was a former Uber driver. 
 
 "Someone needs to create a non Islamic form of Uber or Lyft because I never want to support another Islamic immigrant driver," Loomer tweeted, tagging both companies in the post. 
 
 The tweet marked the beginning of a daylong anti-Islamic social media attack that blamed all Muslims for ISIS terrorism. Loomer also posted a photo of two women wearing hijabs near the intersection where Tuesday's attacks occurred, writing “I bet they’re loving this.” 
 
 Hours later, she re-tweeted reports that she’d been banned from both ride-sharing services. The 24-year-old has responded to the ban by announcing that she will be taking legal action against both companies. 
 
 Related: Milo Yiannopoulos' 'Free Speech' Week Canceled 
 
 “Uber will literally hire an Islamic terrorist, but they will ban a conservative journalist for addressing legitimate safety concerns,” she tweeted. 
 
 The backlash to Loomer's rant was swift and vocal, with many critics accusing the online agitator of stoking racism in the wake of a tragedy. Celebrities also criticized Loomer’s posts, with model Gigi Hadid tweeting that she’s a "f***ing moron," and actress Alyssa Milano posting that she’d reported Loomer to Twitter for hate speech. 
 
 The blowback seemed to embolden Loomer, who continued tweeting about the ban Thursday. 
 
 Loomer describes herself as an independent journalist, but many of her critics have labeled her a vocal member of the alt-right. She previously worked for Project Veritas, which is run by far-right political activist James O'Keefe. ||||| Twitter account linked to the Anonymous network of hackers says apparent hack might be a stunt initiated by neo-Nazi site 
 
 A message purportedly posted by hackers has appeared on the Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi website, saying the site has been taken over in response to an article criticising a woman who died during violence at far-right rally in Virginia over the weekend. 
 
 The post on the website’s homepage said the international hacking network Anonymous had taken control of the site, which was founded and is edited by Andrew Anglin, who endorsed Donald Trump for president. 
 
 On Sunday Anglin published an article criticising Heather Heyer, who was killed at a white supremacist march in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday. 
 
 
 
 The web hosting company GoDaddy said on Sunday it had given the Daily Stormer 24 hours to move its domain to another provider, after the article denigrating Heyer was published. 
 
 Your Anon News, one of the biggest Anonymous-linked Twitter accounts, said on Monday it did not think the apparent hack of the Daily Stormer had been perpetrated by an established member. 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest Heather Heyer, who was killed in Charlottesville on Saturday. Photograph: Reuters 
 
 “We have no confirmation that ‘Anonymous’ is involved yet,” it wrote on Twitter. Furthermore, the account suggested the post may have been a Daily Stormer stunt. 
 
 The post in the name of Anonymous claims the website will be shut down within 24 hours, but this was almost inevitable considering GoDaddy’s withdrawal of support. 
 
 
 
 “Looks more like a [Daily Stormer] stunt,” the Your Anon News account said. “Wonder if they are having issues finding a new host.” 
 
 Heyer, a legal assistant who had championed civil rights issues, was killed on Saturday when a car ploughed into a crowd of protesters who had assembled to challenge a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville. 
 
 The post on Monday said Anonymous had taken over the site in Heyer’s name, stating she was a “victim of white supremacist terrorism”. 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest Part of the post that appeared on the Daily Stormer website on Monday. Photograph: Daily Stormer 
 
 Separately, it appears Anonymous has targeted the Ku Klux Klan and white supremacists. The operation, which was declared in a press release put out through various anonymous text hosting services, spoke directly to the town of Charlottesville. 
 
 People claiming to be from Anonymous said: “It has come to our attention that the far-right, alt-right, and neo-Nazi organisations have attempted to use your city as a rallying point to display their hatred and intolerance towards the people. 
 
 “You as citizens cannot allow these types of actions to go unpunished. Anonymous has taken steps to remove the websites of these far-right extremists under the banner of #OpDomesticTerrorism.” 
 
 In another press release, those claiming to be Anonymous promised to strip rightwing extremists of their anonymity, providing a document for listing the personal details of those being targeted. 
 
 The hacking collective appears to have been able to take a variety of KKK and white supremacist sites offline, at least temporarily, with some resorting to Cloudflare distributed denial of service protection to stay accessible. The Charlottesville city website was also reportedly affected, although the site was back online at the time of writing. 
 
 Anonymous has a history of targeting the KKK, leaking the identities of more than 350 alleged members with links to their social media accounts in 2015 under the banner #OperationKKK. 
 
 Anonymous is a hacking collective that grew out of the internet forum 4Chan in the late 2000s. It has become well known for a series of high-profile cyber-attacks on political, religious and corporate organisations, including Islamic State, the Westboro Baptist church, PayPal, MasterCard, Visa and Sony. 
 
 
 
 The loose international collective structure means that, while some operations have appeared to be coordinated efforts spanning actors in several countries, anyone can mimic Anonymous’s trademark Guy Fawkes masks and style with little to disprove it as an action of Anonymous. 
 
 The collective describes itself as an “internet gathering” with a “very loose and decentralised command structure that operates on ideas rather than directives”. This essentially means anyone could claim to be part of Anonymous. At the same time, anyone who operates as part of the group can perform actions that others in Anonymous are not party to. 
 
 Various offshoots of the main Anonymous collective also exist, including various country-specific and alternative groups such as AnonSec and GhostSec, which often claim affiliation with Anonymous.
– A few Twitter users lost the coveted blue tick on Wednesday after Twitter released new guidelines regarding verified accounts. The move came after the company was attacked for granting verified status to Jason Kessler, who put together the white nationalist rally that rocked Charlottesville in August (and issued this "vile" tweet about victim Heather Heyer). In a series of tweets, Twitter explained that "verification was meant to authenticate identity & voice ... [but] verification has long been perceived as an endorsement. We gave verified accounts visual prominence on the service which deepened this perception. We should have addressed this earlier but did not prioritize the work as we should have." General verification requests had been put on ice as of Nov. 9 pending a review of the program, and the Guardian reports that Twitter's new policy specifies that accounts that promote hate, support hate groups, or harass users will see verification revoked. Among those to immediately lose the check, per the Washington Post, were Kessler, white nationalist Richard Spencer, and far-right activist Laura Loomer (known for rushing the stage during Julius Caesar and being banned from Uber and Lyft after anti-Muslim tweets). Loomer's response to her notice of verification removal including tweeting "Translation: I'm a conservative" and, per Splinter, comparing her situation to that of Jews during the Holocaust.