The Elecktronick Tyger Roares
25 February 2006
  Ah, the joys of non-selective blacklists
According to the Winona (Wis) Daily News, a man named Ed Callahan tried to sign up for a Yahoo e-mail account, and was rejected, as had been his mother. Okay, he figured he wasn't the first Ed Callahan to sign up, and tried other combinations.

Nothing containing the name "Callahan" would work.

He finally figured it out:
Callahan discovered it was because his last name contained the word "Allah," the Arabic word for God.

Callahan tried using other variations of Allah, and all were rejected. However, words like 'God,' 'Jesus," "Buddha" and "Satan" were accepted.
Neither Callahan or his mother could get a response from Yahoo, so they contacted the paper, which finally got the following answer from Yahoo:
"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."
Callahan's {perhaps sardonic or sarcastic] comment on that:
"I just picture a terrorist trying over and over again trying to get an account and being foiled every time just because they can’t include that word," Callahan said.
As usual, we are being protected despite and/or from ourselves.

Nannyware that is supposed to protect our kids from Rude Words online at one time banned the official website of Foryth County in Goergia because the county seat is "Cumming". People who live in a town named "Scunthorpe" have various difficulties on line (The reason being left to the reader to determine).

One of the "Related Advertising Links" at the bottom of the newspaper's story about Callahan's experience ids for a company that supplies Patriot Act compliance software that:
...allows you to perform extensive watch list screening, industry-leading identity verification, precise enhanced due diligence research capabilities and more. Everyday, Bridger Insight is used to help prevent domestic and international crimes such as money laundering, terrorism and identity theft and fraud.

Features and Functionality that Exceed Industry Standards

* Watch list screening (20+ lists)
* Identity verification
* Customer enhanced due diligence
* Integrated multiple-vendor solutions
* Reporting and storage
* Workflow and case management
* Risk scoring, analytics and risk assessment tools
* Multiple platforms (Windows/desktop, secure
    online and software development kit)

* User access security features
It doesn't seem to mention Big Brother on the package, but i'm sure he's there somewhere.

Back to Callahan:
On his Web site, www.edcallahan.com, he points out that Yahoo doesn’t prevent users from using other religious words which could be used for hate-speech. He suspects more sinister motives.

"The war on terror is becoming a war on Muslims," Callahan said. "The word terrorist now means Muslims and it shouldn’t."
And even if it did, it's no reason to start banning the name of God online.
 
Comments: Post a Comment

Links to this post:

Create a Link



<< Home
My interests are broadranging -- comics, music, movies and good ol' science fiction mostly dominate. My Five Most Favouritest Films are (this week) Once Upon A Time in the West, Dark Star, O Lucky Man, Day for Night and Whatever I Watched Recently That Was Good. Currently that's Day for Night.

My Photo
Name: mike weber
Location: gainesville, Georgia, United States

Latter fifties, married, out of work (had knee surgery and haven't gotten back to work); my (step) son-in-law is back from Iraq, but a lot of boys are still over there. Support our troops -- throw the Republicans out!

ARCHIVES
November 2005 / December 2005 / January 2006 / February 2006 / March 2006 / April 2006 / May 2006 / July 2006 / August 2006 / September 2006 / October 2006 / February 2007 / August 2007 /

  • Baby pics; My [step] granddaughter.
  • Experiments in stereo (3D) imaging
  • Cowboy Mouth: Butt-Kickin' New Orleans Rock'n'Roll
  • Fairport Convention -- Pretty much the founders of modern Brit folk-rock
  • The Radio Ranch: Dick ("Chickenman") Orkin's freelance radio production facility
  • Laire of the Elecktronick Tyger -- my Web Page, such as it is. Book, movie, CD and comics reviews
  • My Amazon profile. Read my reviews. Buy things.
  • Long John Baldry: Arguably the most important force in the early days of British Blues.
  • Dark Star (DVD) -- See where George Lucas got some of his ideas.
  • Fallen Angel (TPB) Collects the first 6 (of 20) issues of the DC run.
  • Google News
  • The Nutbar Files:
  • 911: The "True" Story
  • A Typical "Moon Hoax" site
  • Powered by Blogger

    This requires a Java-enabled browser.
    Terror
    Terror Alert Level
    Alert Level
    Cost of the War in Iraq to Date
    (JavaScript Error)


    Try MOG.com - share your musical tastes, find others who share them, and generally interact in a music-oriented on-line community.

    My Blogroll
    (some ringers)

    DISCLAIMER: Unless unambiguously noted, all opinions expressed on this blog are those of the owner/author.  ***   The author's opinions do not represent those of his employers (if he had any), nor of anyone else beside himself, including his wife, mother, step-daughter or infant step-grand-daughter.  ***   All original material is copyrighted and property of the author.  If you use it at least have the decency to give me credit for it.  Don’t steal it or I reserve the right to irritate you to heck and back, to tell everyone in the blogosphere you're a big poopyhead, or even to sue.  ***   Other info may have been copyrighted by someone else; the author believes that such work as is quoted here does not exceed reasonable "fair use" of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes..  ***   Opinions in comments or trackbacks are not mine, so if you have a problem with those, sorry, I can’t help you.  Did the jerk you're honked off with leave a URL or e-mail? If so, go bug him.  ***   Anyone mentioned in relation to a crime is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.  ***   Contact: fairportfan AT gmail.com. All e-mails are presumed to be for publication on the site unless I am specifically told otherwise.  ***   All comments are subject to deletion, revision or derision should the author find them offensive, irrelevant or just simply take a dislike to you.  ***   Trolling is not tolerated.  Trolls will be savagely mocked one time and then ignored.  ***   This disclaimer modeled (with extra added snarkiness) on that of "Queer Conservative".