Yahoo! unbans! Allah!
Print storyThank god for that!
Posted in Music and Media, 22nd February 2006 15:47 GMT
See what The Register's experts have to say on application security
Yahoo! has reversed its decision to stop people registering Yahoo! IDs which include the letters "allah".
The Reg was contacted yesterday by a reader - Ed Callahan - who was having trouble registering his mum - Linda Callahan - for a Verizon email address - provided through a Yahoo! portal.
But Yahoo! got in touch with us this morning to say it is now accepting Yahoo! identities which contain the letters "allah". The Callahans will be overjoyed.
Yahoo! said in a statement: "We continuously evaluate abuse patterns in registration usernames to help prevent spam, fraud and other inappropriate behavior. 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.
"'Allah' was one word being used for these purposes, with instances tied to defamatory language. We took steps to help protect our users by prohibiting use of the term in Yahoo! usernames. We recently re-evaluated the term 'Allah' and users can now register for IDs with this word because it is no longer a significant target for abuse. We regularly evaluate this type of activity and will continue to make adjustments to our registration process to help foster a positive customer experience." ®
The future of SaaS and IT infrastructure management
Should your email live in the cloud: a comparative cost analysis
Hosted security IT manager's guide
Jump start your Application Security initiatives
Securing your Apache web server with a Thawte digital certificate
Win a Samsung C6625!
Is your cameraphone an oxymoron?
Windows 7, Bing and security: Mr Ballmer regrets
Sign up, sign up for The Register IT security newsletter