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Facebook Fail Friday: Facebook rejects “fake” names




Facebook doesn’t accept the registration of names it suspects aren’t legit. Upon registering, users submitting bizarre, funny or simply implausible names are confronted with the following message:

Our automated system will not approve this name. If you believe this is an error, please contact us.

We tried “Illegitimate Name“, “Legitimate Name“, “John Doe“, “Jane Doe” and “Osama Bin Laden“. All of which were obviously blocked. (Here’s a thought: Would it be interesting to compile a list of all forbidden names? Help us out in the comments if you are aware of any other blocked words, OK?)

Facebook’s name filter makes sense so far. But this is what happened when the co-founder of Flickr and Hunch, well-known businesswoman honored by Forbes, Fast Company, and BusinessWeek, and interestingly named Caterina Fake tried to create her personal Facebook account.

Sure enough, Caterina was able to open a Facebook account eventually ─probably after contacting their support and waiting for their humble response─ but it’s clearly a fail and terrible user experience when Facebook blocks one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World, isn’t it?

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Facebook Fail Friday: Facebook rejects “fake” names Posted by on April 24, 2010 at 8:14 PM. Use this trackback if you're linking this story.

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