TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2015 - Day 3 (Photo : Getty Images)
Woe to people who have the misfortune of sharing the same name with the notorious terror organization, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
Engineer Isis Anchalee had the bad experience of being blocked by Facebook because the social media site thought she has linked to the jihadist group behind the recent Paris terror attacks and beheading of captives in Syria. This, despite Anchalee having gained some online fame through the #ILookLikeAnEngineer campaign in early 2015 on what a female engineer should look like, reports Techinsider.
Anchalee even sent Facebook a screenshot of her passport, but that was "not good enough for them to reopen my account," she tweets. "Facebook thinks I'm a terrorists," points out Anchalee who spoke on Sept. 23 at the TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2015 in California.
One Twitter member recalls a similar incident on a person in his feed with the same name, while others offered help or criticized Facebook, which in the past, used to ask people with unusual names to submit a proof of their identity. Such was the case for someone with the surname Avatar.
Because of the negative connotation, 50,000 people have signed a petition to ask news organizations to stop using ISIS to refer to the caliphate which is also known as Islamic State, ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) and Daesh.
However, as of 4:44 p.m., Facebook had unblocked the account of Anchalee.
According to Behindthename, Isis is the goddess of the sky and nature in Egyptian mythology. She is the wife of Osiris and mother of Horus. As a name, Isis is ranked 705 in terms of popularity in the U.S., 398 in France, 138 in The Netherlands and 92 in Portugal.
