A software engineer named Isis says Facebook auto-blocked her account

A little earlier today a software engineer from San Francisco had her account blocked by Facebook. The reason? Her name makes people uncomfortable. 

Isis Anchalee is a programmer, most known for tackling sexism in the industry, when she launched the #ILookLikeAnEngineer campaign on Twitter in August,and now on the advisory board of Women Who Code. She says that she was blocked on Facebook today because of the unfortunate similarity between her first name and that of the extremist jihad group.

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

She wasn't alone in her indignation though, as thousands of people responded to her tweet with either sympathy or stories of friends with the same name who were also blocked. Thankfully, the social media platform was (relatively) quick to respond, though not before Anchalee had to send in her photo ID as verification three times over.

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

@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.

— omid farivar (@bromid) November 17, 2015

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

— omid farivar (@bromid) November 17, 2015

Anchalee is back online on Facebook, although there's likely plenty more users who aren't as lucky (or as well known) to get their accounts unblocked.