One woman discovered her Facebook page was deactivated after the social media giant froze her account, mistaking her for a terrorist, all because of her name. Isis Anchalee is far from a terrorist. She lives in San Francisco and works as an engineer. As Facebook joins the fight against ISIS and terrorism sources, Isis became a victim of the website’s safety measures. Because of her name, Anchalee says her profile was disabled. Immediately after discovering the mistake, she took to Twitter to express her concern, tweeting, “Why would you disable my personal account? MY REAL NAME IS ISIS ANCHALEE /facepalm”
@facebook why would you disable my personal account? MY REAL NAME IS ISIS ANCHALEE /facepalm
— Isis Anchalee (@isisAnchalee) November 16, 2015
Other Twitter users quickly came to her defense. Some tweeted the definition of Isis, which is derived from the name of the Egyptian goddess of nature.
.@isisAnchalee @facebook https://t.co/5VCMdqtSJ3 pic.twitter.com/TWRtBTnFSc
— LTJ (@LJohnson23) November 17, 2015
While others joked that they were the next victims of Facebook’s fight on terror.
https://twitter.com/isil_arican/status/666880961628344320
Facebook didn’t just disable her profile page either. Isis’s friends claimed that they past message threads had become marked as spam as well. Isis simply replied, “Facebook thinks I’m a terrorist and froze my account.”
In order to prove herself, Isis sent Facebook a screenshot of her passport, proving that Isis was indeed her real name. Apparently, that wasn’t good enough.
@facebook I sent you my passport but it's not good enough for validation?
— Isis Anchalee (@isisAnchalee) November 17, 2015
She claims it took three attempts to get the social media company’s attention.
Facebook thinks I'm a terrorist. Apparently sending them a screenshot of my passport is not good enough for them to reopen my account.
— Isis Anchalee (@isisAnchalee) November 17, 2015
Finally, Facebook had a reply for Isis.
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
The short message said, “Thanks for verifying your identity. We’ve unlocked your account, and you should now be able to log back in. We’re sorry for the inconvenience.
Anchalee’s story has gotten the attention of bloggers and media outlets, alike. In fact, even now there are reporters tweeting her, asking for an interview.
Facebook’s new policy on user names has been criticized recently. Nadia Drake wrote an interesting opinion on it in Wired.
“Part of the motivation is stopping the proliferation of celebrity imposter accounts and profiles made for pets. But it’s also allowed Facebook to shutter the accounts of real people, based on ‘authenticity’. What does ‘authentic’ mean, though? It’s both confusing and contextual, because identity itself is confusing and contextual,” she wrote.
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