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Dove World Outreach Center Website Pulled by Rackspace Over 'Hate Speech'

by Amar Toor on September 9, 2010 at 04:00 PM

terry jones
The official website of the Dove World Outreach Center unexpectedly shut down today, just two days before the Florida church's highly publicized Koran-burning event. Dan Goodgame, a spokesman for Web-hosting firm Rackspace, tells the AFP that the church's page was pulled because it "violated the Offensive Content section of [Rackspace's] Acceptable Use policy." Rackspace's policy expressly bans any online content that "incites violence, threatens violence, or contains harassing content or hate speech," as well as any material that "creates a risk to a person's safety or health, creates a risk to public safety or health, compromises national security, or interferes with an investigation by law enforcement."

Despite near universal condemnation, Reverend Terry Jones and his congregation of 50 parishioners are planning on commemorating the ninth anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks by burning 200 copies of the Koran. The decision has already sparked demonstrations in Indonesia and Afghanistan, and has drawn the ire of everyone from Sarah Palin to Barack Obama -- including, apparently, visitors to Dove World Outreach Center's site.

Goodgame claims that his Web-hosting company has received a flood of complaints about the content promoted on Jones's site, which includes a link to buy his book, 'Islam is of the Devil.' The spokesman mentioned, however, that Rackspace had held a conference with Jones on Wednesday afternoon to inform him of the decision, and has given him until midnight to relocate his site to another hosting service. Unfortunately, though, Jones and his minions have already gained enough notoriety to get their message out to a larger audience -- host, or no host.

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