[Facebook has disabled an account of one of its users named ‘Isis Anchalee’ for a day — an action the user claims was due to her name being spelled same as the acronym (ISIS) used for the Islamic State extremist group.
Facebook Inc said it was error.
Anchalee, a software developer in San Francisco, on Monday posted on twitter a screenshot of a Facebook log-in page that showed a message “Account disabled”.
She wrote to Facebook’s Twitter page (@facebook), “why would you disable my personal account? MY REAL NAME IS ISIS ANCHALEE”.
@facebook why would you disable my personal account? MY REAL NAME IS ISIS ANCHALEE /facepalm
— Isis Anchalee (@isisAnchalee) November 16, 2015
Anchalee said she sent Facebook her personal information three times to resolve the issue.
“Facebook thinks I’m a terrorist. Apparently sending them a screenshot of my passport is not good enough for them to reopen my account,” Anchalee wrote on Twitter.
I write about empathy, vulnerability, overcoming fears, diversity, etc. and my most popular tweet is about being blocked on FB.
— Isis Anchalee (@isisAnchalee) November 19, 2015
“This was an error made as part of a fake account reporting process and we’re sorry for the trouble it caused. It was not connected to the individual’s name and her account has already been restored,” a Facebook spokesperson clarified.