Rackspace terminates Koran burning client

Cloud provider Rackspace on Wednesday terminated the account of a web host client that planned to webcast the burning of 200 Korans on the anniversary of the September 11 2001 bombings.

The event, which was organised by Florida-based church, Dove World Outreach Center, reportedly "violated the Offensive Content section" of Rackspace's acceptable usage policy.

Rackspace's policy prohibited clients from publishing content that was "excessively violent, incites violence, threatens violence, or contains harassing content or hate speech".

Doveworld.org was inaccessible at the time of writing, however the group continued to promote its September 11 event on social network Facebook.

The church maintained its Facebook presence despite a similar policy stating that users "will not post content that: is hateful, threatening, or pornographic; incites violence; or contains nudity or graphic or gratuitous violence".

Rackspace's decision to stop hosting the website came after widespread criticism of the church's plans.

The Vatican had labelled Dove World's plans "outrageous" while the US military commander in Afghanistan General David Petraeus said it could cause troops there significant damage, according to a CNN report.

Jones reportedly told Rackspace that he still planned to publish the burning, although the Sydney Morning Herald this morning reported that the event was cancelled.