Southwest fails to bring down Southwoke website

After SouthWoke.com popped up in April, a satire site dedicated to making fun of Southwest Airlines and its progressive virtue signaling, the airline filed a cybersquatting complaint which it has subsequently lost.

According to Domain Name Wire, the Southwoke.com domain is registered through hosting business Flokinet, a company that describes itself as "a safe harbor for freedom of speech, free press and whistleblower projects."

ICANN's Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy, often shortened to UDRP, is a domain name policy that typically allows satire sites that participate in non-commercial criticism. The complaint was filed by Munck Wilson Mandala, LLP and the site's owner did not respond to the dispute.

The complaint states that Southwoke is "confusingly similar" to Southwest, "because it includes the first 'south' portion, changes three letters of the word 'west' to 'woke' and adds the generic top-level domain '.com'."

The complaint also says that Southwoke "disrupts" Southwest’s business "by operating a competing website" and "creates a likelihood of confusion by attempting to pass of as [Southwest]."

As the ruling explained, the "Complainant, having failed to establish that Respondent lacks rights or legitimate interests in the Domain Name, has not established all required elements of its claim, and thus its complaint must be denied."

A billboard was put up along I-35 south of Fort Worth ahead of April Fools Day featuring an ad for Stopwoke Airlines and featured the phrase "Bringing San Francisco’s baggage to Texas non-stop" and it linked to the website.

The website included several slogans, such as, "you're now free to move about your gender," "we bring woke values to Texas," "we held Texas become a second California," and "an airline that's inclusive of everyone but you."

The site also included a satirical message from CEO Bob Jordan, who has "He/Him/Two Spirit" pronouns listed.

Jordan said, "Here at Southwoke, we’re fully committed to DEI, ESG, LGTBQ+, BLM, BIPOC, Allyship, #MeToo and every other trendy woke acronym or hashtag you can think of."

"In fact, we’re so committed that we want to import those same values from other woke meccas like San Francisco and Portland to right here, deep in the heart of Texas – the stolen lands of the Caddo, Wichita, and Comanche people," he added,

Jordan went on to "promise to bring those woke values" to Texas, including accommodating work schedule changes for employees looking to participate "in leftist political activism," and investing in DEI, ESG, BLM, LGBTQ+ initiatives "even when it hurts."

"That may mean we have to delay investments in things like flight scheduling hardware upgrades, but we believe signaling our woke virtues is that important," Jordan said.

"We promise to do this, even if it risks the cancellation of tens of thousands of flights over important holidays such as Christmas or New Year’s. Southwoke believes all Americans have to make sacrifices to protect woke values, and sometimes that includes our customers," the message continued, adding that the fake company values hiring not employees that are most qualified, but rather those that are "historically marginalized."

"That’s why we have promised to lower our standards in the way we hire, train, discipline, and promote workers in order to benefit those employees that best represent, not the most qualified, but instead the incredible diversity rainbow," the satirical company's CEO stated.