Having an unusual name can be a curse for people especially if Facebook is concerned. The social networking site mistook a software engineer to be a terrorist - all because of her name was Isis.
22-year-old Isis Anchalee had her Facebook account disabled by the site owing to her name. The social networking site erroneously thought that she had links to the Islamic State. Yes, Facebook assumed that she was not an individual but a global terrorist organization.
Anchalee took to Twitter to vent her ire and reveal that she was unable to reactivate her Facebook account as the platform suspected she was a terrorist. Even sending a copy of her passport was not sufficient.
"Facebook thinks I'm a terrorist. Apparently sending them a screenshot of my passport is not good enough for them to reopen my account," tweeted Anchalee.
@facebook why would you disable my personal account? MY REAL NAME IS ISIS ANCHALEE /facepalm
— Isis Anchalee (@isisAnchalee) November 16, 2015
Coincidentally, Anchalee begun the #ILookLikeAnEngineer campaign when an advert featuring the San Francisco-based software engineer sparked online controversy over the notions of what a woman engineer "should look like."
A Facebook researcher Omid Farivar apologized for her plight and revealed that he had reported the matter and that the site was working on a fix.
@isisAnchalee Isis, sorry about this. I don't know what happened. I've reported it to the right people and we're working on fixing it.
— omid farivar (@bromid) November 17, 2015
It is often said that third time's a charm and Anchalee discovered the same when her account was reactivated only after three Facebook posts verifying her identity. Facebook finally accepted that she was not a Syrian organization out to wreak terror.
Third time sending in my information is the charm I guess. I'm back in :) pic.twitter.com/m0demGZitw — Isis Anchalee (@isisAnchalee) November 17, 2015
Since Facebook's "real names" policy debars individuals from deploying fraudulent names or "offensive" words, it is supposed that Isis encountered the same situation as Anchalee.
