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SONY banned someone based on his real name

Seems to me that he was reported by people who felt offended by his name.

Making myself the devil's advocate here, the whole Jihad thing (as in the call for the death of someone) has been at the center of the media's attention since at least 1989 (with Salman Rushdi). I understand that this is the guy's real name and I feel for him, but why would he use that part of his name for a name tag on a gaming network?

It was bound to happen eventually.

Now if Sony can indeed extend a name change and retracted due to marketing (as opposed to for technical reason, if a CSR offered before realizing the possibility isn't available yet), it does suck.
 
The person who did the banning DID know it was his name. Then they took a second look at the situation, affirming that they understand it's his name, and kept the ban in place rather than letting him change it.

It's ignorant and inexcusable That it hasn't already been fixed.

Exactly. The initial action was perfectly justifiable. Not unbanning his account, after receiving further information, is just racist.
 
He edited his Reddit OP a short while ago with a response from the UK support department:



It's utterly indefensible that he has no options. Forget the name; all of his purchased content is gone because an account he created 10 years ago is now inappropriate. If Sony is going to retroactively ban people, it needs to have a system in place that's more reasonable than "Sorry, better luck next time."

Disgusting. I'm honestly shocked how Sony can give zero fucks about a person and the fact the have had a psn account for so long.
 
Yeah, then they really fucked up.

But I can understand the guidline. You cant handpick the guys who use Jihad Usernames to promote jihad and differ from the guys who are named Jihad. Thats impossible. The same reason why in german the ns-swastikas (who are not that particular like it was claimed here...) are treated the same like the buddhism-swastikas. You cant handpick that. Its impossible.

Still, when the guy scanned his passport, they should have unlocked his account again.

100% with you on that one. Guidelines are needed but he provided proof and they should do anything in their power to let him keep his account. change his username or transfer the stuff he bought to a new account.
 
And there was me thinking Sony would just make his case an exception (because of their inability to adequately modify his PSN ID without possible repercussions) and leave as...

Whoever is dealing with this query is a twat

SMH

ps3ud0 8)
 
Seems to me that he was reported by people who felt offended by his name.

Making myself the devil's advocate here, the whole Jihad thing (as in the call for the death of someone) has been at the center of the media's attention since at least 1989 (with Salman Rushdi). I understand that this is the guy's real name and I feel for him, but why would he use that part of his name for a name tag on a gaming network?

It was bound to happen eventually.

Now if Sony can indeed extend a name change and retracted due to marketing (as opposed to for technical reason, if a CSR offered before realizing the possibility isn't available yet), it does suck.

So your one of those people that believe a 16 year old middle easterner should have been aware of how the western media interpreted his name.

Ok
 
He edited his Reddit OP a short while ago with a response from the UK support department:



It's utterly indefensible that he has no options. Forget the name; all of his purchased content is gone because an account he created 10 years ago is now inappropriate. If Sony is going to retroactively ban people, it needs to have a system in place that's more reasonable than "Sorry, better luck next time."

Jesus christ. What the fuck sony? Just change his name and give him back his games.
 
He edited his Reddit OP a short while ago with a response from the UK support department:



It's utterly indefensible that he has no options. Forget the name; all of his purchased content is gone because an account he created 10 years ago is now inappropriate. If Sony is going to retroactively ban people, it needs to have a system in place that's more reasonable than "Sorry, better luck next time."

So all his content for 10 years is lost for something that is not his fault but some people somewhere decided to report his name just now becuase it somehow hurts their feelings.

10 Years later what if some people "and Sony" suddenly found my name offensive? I would get banned too?
 
I submitted the name to PS I Love you's worst PSN name of the week, if gets into the show am sure he will have this sorted within a few hours as so many sony high ups listern. Personally they should have just changed his name and moved on can see why would not allow it, but also why it should be allowed, having looked at the general accepted meaning of the word in Arabic. But to offer the change his name and then delete 10 years of purchases etc is not cool. This will not play well if it goes wide and sure when playstation NA get email from Playstation SA might change again.
 
I submitted the name to PS I Love you's worst PSN name of the week, if gets into the show am sure he will have this sorted within a few hours as so many sony high ups listern. Personally they should have just changed his name and moved on can see why would not allow it, but also why it should be allowed, having looked at the general accepted meaning of the word in Arabic. But to offer the change his name and then delete 10 years of purchases etc is not cool. This will not play well if it goes wide and sure when playstation NA get email from Playstation SA might change again.

I was thinking PS I Love You might be a good place for this to be brought to the attention of the right people.

Even if they can't restore his original account they can probably create a new account and gift him all the content the content he lost.
 
Why Sony doesn't provide separate display names and account names for its PSN service is beyond me. I understand they have an asinine system in place that ties purchases and all sorts of other information to the username, which makes changes a pain, but allowing an easily changed display name (like Steam) would alleviate so many issues.

The whole bit about them flippantly deciding to tell him to fuck off and invalidating a decade of digital purchases is ridiculous and sounds illegal, especially since he did nothing to break their TOS. Hoping this story gets picked up by some outlets and gets the guy his account back.

In the meantime, the lesson I've gotten loud of clear from Sony is not to make any digital purchases with them.
 
They should restore his account with the same name.

Sony is being stupid.

This is actually grounds for a law suit in which the victim Jihad would win. It would also set a precedent for such future cases.

You cannot ban someones account after 10 years based on its name, you had 10 years to give warning or offer to change it.
 
Man I wish we could mass-report Yosps PSN name and say its offensive for some arbitrary reason just like Jihad and see what happens there - Im sure it wouldnt be ignored and to see Yosps face when he cant log on and then checks why he cant, would settle this whole thing amicably.

ps3ud0 8)
 
I was thinking PS I Love You might be a good place for this to be brought to the attention of the right people.

Even if they can't restore his original account they can probably create a new account and gift him all the content the content he lost.

Yeah someone has added it aswell as me hopefully it either is the psn name change or one of the other segments.

I just pray to god indie does not become a rasical/offensive slur as otherwise my PSN account might be at risk, which has so much bought content in the 1000s (£) i am sure and my Level 32 throphies with nearly 7.5k worth of trophies including 75 Plats. Plus then there is all the saves for rocket league, gta, minecraft etc which would be invalidated, omg the days of play time down the drain :( wow yeah just think about if this was your account ouch that is scary!
 
I've just DM'd a community manager and two press on Twitter.
They're working on stories at the moment to get this some publicity.
 
So you revoke a offer to let him change his name, a block him from 10 years worth of goods? Despite the fact he went so long w/o anyone feeling a need to report him over the last decade?
remember the millions and millions of times where it was claimed that you cant change usernames on PSN. In the vein of its impossible and not in the vein of maybe it comes at somepoint. Looks like its really impossible, otherwise they would offer it and take money for it.

And if you read my next post you see that I dont think that its ok. At least after he send them a copy of their passport they should have unlocked the account.
 
the whole transfer ID thing is impossible, the way the system works he would lose all his purchases, trophies etc., he may aswell just open a new account.

this shit is disgusting. "many people find this offensive".

well that's the dumbest thing i've heard in my life.

You know what? i'd take this further.
 
Man I wish we could mass-report Yosps PSN name and say its offensive for some arbitrary reason just like Jihad and see what happens there - Im sure it wouldnt be ignored and to see Yosps face when he cant log on and then checks why he cant, would settle this whole thing amicably.

ps3ud0 8)
So he is the person at fault here? Cool! Lets punish him for the stupidity of a community mod
 
The bad connotation comes from people's ignorance to the actual meaning. It's ridiculous that he should be ashamed of his given birth name.

And it's also ridiculous that people can't accept that Sony can't let people have names like this. Sorry to him, but the word Jihad is offensive to people and carries a specific meaning now.

They should let him transfer content to a new profile, but you cant let things through just because it's a real name.
 
Seems to me that he was reported by people who felt offended by his name.

Making myself the devil's advocate here, the whole Jihad thing (as in the call for the death of someone) has been at the center of the media's attention since at least 1989 (with Salman Rushdi). I understand that this is the guy's real name and I feel for him, but why would he use that part of his name for a name tag on a gaming network?

It was bound to happen eventually.

Now if Sony can indeed extend a name change and retracted due to marketing (as opposed to for technical reason, if a CSR offered before realizing the possibility isn't available yet), it does suck.

The name itself doesn't have anything to do with terrorism, did you read?

And it's also ridiculous that people can't accept that Sony can't let people have names like this. Sorry to him, but the word Jihad is offensive to people and carries a specific meaning now.

They should let him transfer content to a new profile, but you cant let things through just because it's a real name.

Oh wow, tough luck for him then eh?
 
holy shit,just wow PlayStation UK,just....WOW

https://twitter.com/iJihad/status/747396164308320256

Cl9Gyk1WYAAsfB3.jpg

they just don't care,and they wont change his ID.
 
holy shit,just wow PlayStation UK,just....WOW

https://twitter.com/iJihad/status/747396164308320256

they just don't care,and they wont change his ID.
Offering a name chance is the least they could do.

Can that they at least offer him to transfer all his purchases, saves, trophies, etc to a new account?
They can't change the ID that's why....

If they could, they'd offer the name change service.

It's free money for Sony.
That even Sony themselves can't change the ID just shows their incompetence when it comes to PSN.
 
MS can just change the name for situations like this, but Sony apparently truly can't rename accounts for who the fuck knows why.

Maybe this type of situation will make the Sony Engineers get off their asses and implement it. How long have we been requesting name changes now?
 
The fact that PSN was designed without the ability to change usernames is truly a disaster. They should have separated the immutable internal unique ID of an account from the mutable unique display name. Instead, they apparently conflated both. And now it's nearly impossible to change all the APIs and databases that are build upon this assumption.
I remember the early days of PSN so this rookie oversight in designing the system isn't surprising to me. Unfortunately.
 
It's an unfortunate situation. Guy trying to use his real name, which is now taboo to numerous people. the correct solution is allow a name change, but you cant do that on PSN.

Shu needs to allow us to change our names, then this guy should be able to change his to something that isn't so offensive to a lot of people. if he can show ID proving his name is in fact Jihad then there should not be a ban. it must be a very rare occurrence that someone wasn't trying to be offensive with an offensive name. should have been caught when he first made it, and maybe the guy should have been more aware that his name may have been seen as offensive or upsetting. PS3 era was still post 9/11.
 
They can't change the ID that's why....

If they could, they'd offer the name change service.

It's free money for Sony.

They have changed peoples IDs before in these cases are really rare! They did offer this to him at the begining and then decided to ban him.

Hey i know the feeling for shifting meaning of words i set up my name many many years ago on sites and PSN and theindieboy was about indie music (coldplay, eels, beth orton etc) now everyone thinks it is about me liking indie games (hardly the end of the world as do like indie games) buty does show how over the course of 10 years something you put in then and had no idea you could not change it, only for the common western meaning to shift to mean something else.
 
So, can't Sony:
-Allow him to ceate a new account
-Transfer every purchase to that new account
-or refund the entirity of the purchases to that new account.

This was a 6 years old account, so if Sony and people found it offensive now, then the least they should do is either transfer or refund things.

Hopefully sites will pick this and get an answer.
 
Stuff like this bugs the crap out of me. Companies are so cheap when it comes to customer service, they will only allow their employees to blindly read scripts and not allow them to think critically about a problem for even a nano second.

Same thing happened with that Xbox guy who lived in Fort Gay.

Gay in your profile = Ban

"But I actually live here, look up my IP"

Gay=Ban, that's what my script says.
 
And it's also ridiculous that people can't accept that Sony can't let people have names like this. Sorry to him, but the word Jihad is offensive to people and carries a specific meaning now.

They should let him transfer content to a new profile, but you cant let things through just because it's a real name.

How about letting things through because it wasn't his fault that the word carries a specific meaning now, and that he is willing to compromise with a name change? Or have a brand new account with an acceptable name and all his purchases tied to it?

Its even more ridiculous that people are accepting that Sony was the one who accept the account creation in the first place, let him invest thousands of dollars and then take everything away from him years later without any warning.
 
Time to call his credit card company and see how many Sony purchases he can charge back.

Completely disgusting behavior by Sony customer support. You can't take someone's money for six years then arbitrarily decide to block them from all of their purchases because someone didn't like their name.
 
Everyone should realize that they are acting like thieves: If there's a breach of ToS, companies shouldn't be allowed to revoke access to content purchased legally. They might revoke access to content acquired through illegal ways, but no way in hell legit purchases.

I'm sorry, but if he's from the Middle East, where Jihad is a common name, HOW THE FUCK would he know that the western world is so sensitive to it, 10 years after the fact?

its crazy that we would expect a middle easterner to be well versed in our culture, when the very heart of this issue stems from the fact that we don't know shit about theirs.

Sorry for getting riled up, but I just find this sort of victim blaming to be really ignorant, even if that isn't your intention. Sony has stolen his Digital goods after allowing him to use the tag for 10 years... All while never implimenting an adequate method of changing user IDs. The fault lies solely with Sony.

I wonder if names like "holywarrior" or "crusader" or "templar knight" would result in The loss of account? Of course not, because double standards.

This is a well written post.
 
The fact that PSN was designed without the ability to change usernames is truly a disaster. They should have separated the immutable internal unique ID of an account from the mutable unique display name. Instead, they apparently conflated both. And now it's nearly impossible to change all the APIs and databases that are build upon this assumption.

It's shite that's why. We only got the ability to appear offline recently. Name changing should of been available years ago. Best thing about it is some of the Plus offerings.
 
The thread should be titled "User banned by Sony for name not allowed to access purchased goods"

as it is its just complicating the conversation
 
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