Neo-Nazi website Stormfront forced offline 'by its own host'

Web forum appears to be under legal dispute or lined up for deletion

Stormfront was established by a former Ku Klux Klan leader in 1996 (Chet Strange/Getty Images)

One of the internet's oldest and most popular major white supremacist sites has been shut down by its website host.

Stormfront went offline on Friday, with a web service tracking site ownership reporting the site's domain status as "under hold".

The category suggests the website is under legal dispute or lined up for deletion, the USA Today network reported.

Network Solutions, the site's host, has also prohibited the web forum from being updated, transferred or deleted.

The prohibition will prevent the site's owners from re-creating it on another domain, meaning if it is deleted, they would have to start from the beginning.

Before it disappeared, the site hosted a series of discussion boards used by white supremacists and neo-Nazis, and boasted more than 300,000 registered members in 2015.

It was established by a former Ku Klux Klan leader in 1996.

The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law claimed responsibility for the site's removal after it had "taken action against Stormfront."

The committee's executive director, Kristen Clarke, told USA Today: "Their website is a vehicle used to promote racially-motivated violence and hate.

"Following our efforts, Network Solutions has pulled the site," Mr Clarke added. "And while bringing down one site won't terminate their efforts, it will make it a little more difficult for white supremacists to sow hatred."

It comes two weeks after the white supremacist website Daily Stormer was also shut down and forced to retreat onto the dark web.

The site had praised the death of Heather Heyer, an anti-racist protester killed at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville.