Yahoo Blocked 'Allah' E-Mail Names

[gc70]

Yahoo Blocked Some E-Mail Names

The ebb and flow of PC activity continually amazes me.

Yahoo Blocked 'Allah' E-Mail Names

Associated Press - Friday, February 24, 2006

FOUNTAIN CITY, Wis. — A man says his attempts to sign up for an e-mail account with Yahoo failed when he used his name, which includes the letters a-l-l-a-h — as in Allah, the Arabic word for God.

Ed Callahan said he started trying to establish the e-mail account after his mother, with the same last name, couldn't get one.

[Another man in England, also named Callahan, reported the same problem earlier this week.]

As he tried using various words, he determined that e-mail addresses with other religious words seemed OK, but not if they included the spelling of Allah.

"The war on terror is becoming a war on Muslims," Callahan said.

Yahoo Inc. said Wednesday it has changed policy to allow usage of the word.

In a written statement, the company defended the previous policy as an attempt to protect users from hateful speech.

"A small number of people registered for IDs using specific terms with the sole purpose of promoting hate and then used those IDs to post content that was harmful or threatening to others, thus violating Yahoo's terms of service," the statement said.

After the policy change, Callahan said he promptly registered a new e-mail account, which includes his last name.

 

[Bartholomew Roberts]

Already reversed/explained by Yahoo here:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/02/22/yahoo_unbans_allah/

May be off-topic as well; but I will let the L&P mods make that call.

 

[gc70]

{policy reversal noted in original post - highlighted in subsequent edit}
{also tried unsuccessfully to change the title so this would not be construed as Muslim-bashing}

While this is not an issue of statutory law, it is an example of political correctness that impacts people's freedom of action.

 

[White Horseradish]

Callahan, huh? Maybe they were trying to keep Dirty Harry from getting an account...

 

[KriegHund]

"A small number of people registered for IDs using specific terms with the sole purpose of promoting hate and then used those IDs to post content that was harmful or threatening to others, thus violating Yahoo's terms of service," the statement said.

Well at least thats an understandable policy.

 

[ghost squire]

Yahoo blows. They readily bent over for the government and released all data the feds wanted.

 

[KriegHund]

I have a gmail account