Facebook blocks account of woman named 'Isis'

Isis tweeted a message to Facebook questioning why her personal account had been disabled

Facebook recently blocked the account of a woman named 'Isis' due to its association with the terrorist organistion, Islamic State (IS), failing to unblock it even after she provided the website with a scan of her passport.

The terrorist organisation is often referred to as 'ISIS' by the West, along with IS and Daesh.



Entrepreneur and advisory board member of ‘Women Who Code’, Isis Anchalee, who lives in California, tweeted a message to Facebook asking why her personal account had been disabled; informing them that Isis is her real name.

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

https://twitter.com/isisAnchalee/status/666339281955192832/photo/1

In the tweet, Anchalee included a screenshot of the page that popped up when she enters her credentials, telling her that her account is disabled. Meanwhile, a friend of Anchalee, San Francisco filmmaker David Zandman, also reported that Anchalee’s conversation with him had been marked as spam.



"Facebook thinks I'm a terrorist and froze my account," Anchalee said, to which Zandman replied, "I was afraid that might be the case... I'm sorry your name drama continues!"

Anchalee then took to Twitter and tweeted the official Facebook account saying, "I sent you my passport but it's not good enough for validation?" Only after a third attempt of sending her details to the website, her account was finally restored along with an apology from the company, which she took a screen grab of and tweeted.

"We're sorry for the inconvenience," the message  read.

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

Facebook employee Omid Farivar,  also apologised to Anchalee saying,  "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."

@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.

— dimo (@bromid) November 17, 2015

@isisAnchalee Update: your account should be back. Sorry again!

— dimo (@bromid) November 17, 2015

Isis was the name given to the supreme Egyptian goddess of the moon, sky, magic, motherhood and fertility before its association with the IS group.

The recent real-name policy introduced by Facebook causes its systems to automatically flag up any suspicious accounts that may be using fake names. While this is designed to prevent impersonation of accounts, frauds, and parodies it seems to be causing some frustration.

This article originally appeared on IBTIMES