Facebooks asks woman named Isis to prove her identity

In its bid to erase all traces of ISIS (also Islamic State or IS), Facebook has asked a terror group namesake to send her proof of ID to continue using the social network.

Isis Thomas, a resident of Bristol in Britain, was asked to change her name after logging on to the site on June 27, RT.com reported on Saturday.

Isis is the Egyptian goddess of health, marriage and wisdom.

Thomas assumed that the social networking giant was referring to her surname. "I was on Facebook as Isis Worcester, because when I first signed up years ago I didn't use my real name, which is Isis Thomas, because of where I worked at the time," she told a local newspaper.

"I thought it was about the surname, so I just changed it to Isis Thomas. But that didn't work and I realised they had a problem with me being called Isis," she added.

Facebook sent her a message saying "Isis is not allowed" as it "didn't comply with policy".

Thomas was asked for her "proof of identity," which she duly sent. But she fears that satisfying the social network's criteria may take a little more.

Besides innocent people, some companies too have faced problems in the past due to their names. The US-based $7.2 billion Isis Pharmaceuticals had to change its name to Ionis Pharmaceuticals in December 2015 due to its name having negative connotations.

A 35 years old US bookstore was also reportedly vandalised due to it being called Isis Books & Gifts.

--IANS

vr/na/vm