It's not easy to host extremist right-wing content on the modern Internet. Gab, a small Twitter rival that bills itself as a bastion of free speech, has received word from its Australian domain registrar that it has five days to find a new registrar, or its domain will be canceled.

The story begins last month, when the neo-Nazi site the Daily Stormer got a similar message from its domain registrar, GoDaddy. The editor of the Daily Stormer had written an article mocking Heather Heyer, who died in protest-related violence in Charlottesville. The Daily Stormer wound up losing its domain name, and two key people associated with the site—editor Andrew Anglin and webmaster Andrew Auernheimer—switched to Gab as their primary way of communicating with the public.

Hosting Anglin and Aurenheimer—as well as other right-wing figures like Internet troll Milo Yiannopoulos—has created headaches for Gab. Days after Anglin became active on Gab, Google kicked Gab out of the Android app store, citing its lax moderation policies.

A couple of weeks later, Anglin mocked Heyer again in a Gab post. Gab's registrar, an Australian company called Instra, threatened to cancel Gab's domain if Gab didn't delete the post. Gab deleted the post, creating an uproar among Gab users who expected the company to take a strong stand for free speech.

Then on Monday, Instra notified Gab that Gab's content had run afoul of "Australian federal and state anti-discrimination laws, which prohibit public vilification on the basis of race, religion, or ethnic origin." The company gave Gab five days to find a new registrar.

In its post revealing Instra's ultimatum, Gab pointed to an antisemitic post by Aurenheimer suggesting that a repeat of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing could teach "people in power" a "lesson." Despite its free-speech stance, Gab booted Aurenheimer from the service, arguing that the post violated Gab's policy on threats and terrorism.

Gab's challenge now will be to find a new registrar willing to host its domain. If the Daily Stormer's experience is any indication, it might not be easy. The Stormer cycled through half a dozen different registrars around the world, with each canceling the site's domain within hours or days of signing up. For the last few days, the site has been available from an Icelandic domain—though it's unclear how long that will last.

Any registrar that accepts Gab's business could face the same kind of backlash from anti-racism activists that the Daily Stormer has attracted. When the Stormer signed up to Dreamhost's domain registration service, Dreamhost faced a massive denial-of-service attack that made a bunch of other Dreamhost-hosted sites inaccessible. That's a steep price for any Internet business to pay.

Gab may be able to convince a domain registrar that hosting racist and anti-semitic user content, as Gab does, is different from the Daily Stormer publishing its own racist and antisemitic content. But given the post-Charlottesville furor over this kind of content, it might be a struggle to find a domain registrar willing to face the backlash.

Correction: This story originally stated that the Daily Stormer was only available on Tor, but it is actually online at an Icelandic domain.