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Salman Rushdie defeats Facebook banishment

Novelist runs afoul of Facebook name police who temporarily deactivate Rushdie for breaching its real-name policy.

Charles Cooper Former Executive Editor / News
Charles Cooper was an executive editor at CNET News. He has covered technology and business for more than 25 years, working at CBSNews.com, the Associated Press, Computer & Software News, Computer Shopper, PC Week, and ZDNet.
Charles Cooper
2 min read

Maybe there's a book in this, but at the moment Salman Rushdie is not very pleased with Facebook.

Earlier today, the famous novelist went up on Twitter to complain that Facebook had deactivated his account after discovering what it apparently concluded was a breach of its real-name policy. Rushdie refers to himself by his middle name, Salman, but the first name on his passport is Ahmed.

That convinced Facebook that Rushdie was not who he claimed to be. Only after sending a photograph of his passport to Facebook--as well as posting a series of skewering Tweets--did Rushdie get his account reinstated.

In one tweet, he wrote: "Morons. @MarkZuckerbergF? Are you listening?"

After getting reinstated, Rushdie offered a brief recap to his followers:

"Amazing. 2 days ago FB deactivated my page saying they didn't believe I was me. I had to send a photo of my passport page. THEN... they said yes, I was me, but insisted I use the name Ahmed which appears before Salman on my passport and which I have never used," Rushdie wrote. "NOW... They have reactivated my FB page as `Ahmed Rushdie,' in spite of the world knowing me as Salman. Morons."

Separately, he tweeted out news of the return of his identity--with a shout out to the other social media network that allowed him to conduct his one-man PR campaign. "Victory! #Facebook has buckled! I'm Salman Rushdie again. I feel SO much better. An identity crisis at my age is no fun. Thank you Twitter!"

On his Facebook page, Rushdie further explained: "Facebook deactivated my account because they thought I wasn't me. Now they insist I call myself by the first name I have never used. What a bunch of morons."

Facebook was not immediately available for comment.