Story Archive

Unsocial Media

“This is without a doubt the best thing that has ever happened to me,” said a New Zealand woman on Twitter. “I am weeping.” She clearly was able to get an account on Twitter, but when she tried to register on a different social media platform, she couldn’t because “offensive language discovered in the last name field.” Natalie Weiner has had it happen before. Others replied saying they’ve had similar problems. “I had to set my last name as ‘Spron’,” said Philip Sporn, “because Sporn contains ‘offensive language’.” Mike Dickman, Brian Wankum, and Stewart Biggie expressed their own frustrations. “Those of us with offensive last names are here and we will not be silenced,” Weiner said. (RC/New Zealand Herald) ...They need to scrap the filters: my pussycat has the same problem.