I reach home on this cyclonic weather in Mauritius, tired hungry but I said I’ll switch on the laptop and let the stuffs load. Mail is ok, Twitter looks good but hey, what’s that, Facebook apparently does not recognize me. Wait! What? I violate their name standards. What is wrong with “Ish Sookun”? There is no special funny character neither numbers or any plus, minus, multiplication sign. Oh! Maybe my folks should have named me Tom, Dick, Harry? Duh!

I fill up my name, “Ish Sookun”, and click on Update Name. Huh!

I find that naming standard or whatever it is, simply racist. I can’t change my name because Facebook doesn’t like it.

Update #1

Facebook requires ID verification.

According to Facebook’s name standards, nicknames can be used as a first or middle name if it’s similar to the authentic name (some sort of variation). As example, Facebook says “Bob” can be accepted instead of “Robert”. Well, if my nickname looks like my first name, it’s not even a nickname but just a short form. Huh!

Facebook will let me know if I’m real & authentic once they have looked at my ID Card. Till then let’s just Tweet.

Update #2

In a total of three emails, the issue was solved. Thankfully, people at Facebook cooperated in verifying my identity. The real issue in the beginning wasn’t my “name” but rather someone having reported my account as using “fake identity”. However, the way Facebook triggered it on my account left me puzzled because I wasn’t told of the reason my name is being verified. It also puzzled me why my three-letters nickname, Ish, wasn’t according to Facebook’s name standards. Yeah, I did find that racist. That policy didn’t take into consideration names from the various cultures of the world.