Yahoo Bans Any Username Containing “Allah”   - 2,264 Views, 6 Comments

Word on the street is that Yahoo! has an unwritten policy banning Yahoo usernames which contain any name or term that it deems offensive or otherwise unacceptable. And this apparently includes the name “Allah”.

Which means, for example, that a Muslim could not register the name “allah_is_my_copilot at yahoo dot com” or “PraiseBeToAllah at yahoo dot com”, for example.

It also means that one cannot register any username containing the string “allah”, even if your real name contains the string, such as someone trying to register “Callahan” or “Kallahar” (it’s happened to people with both names already).

When one tries to register a username which contains the string “allah” you get a “sorry, this username is unavailable” message.

Even if the username you are trying to register is “12345allah325fjakafjkflja”.

Now really, do you think that somebody else has registered that?

Other words discovered to be on the Yahoo banned list include “admin”, “security”, “osama”, and a few which I won’t mention here, as they are “NSFW” (Not Safe for Work).

It is also interesting to note that there are many words which are not on the Yahoo banned list, even though Allah is, including “God”, “Jesus”, “Jehova”, and the riot-invoking “Mohammed”. Oh yes, “rape” and “incest” are also allowed.

But don’t take my word for it; try it for yourself! Follow this link and enter any username you like, and click on the “check availability of this ID” button. If you already have a valid Yahoo user i.d., be sure to log out first.

Check availability of Yahoo IDs

Be sure to report back on your findings!

UPDATE! As of 2/22/06, it appears that Yahoo has removed the ban on usernames containing the string “allah”, although “admin”, “security” and “osama” appear to still be on the ban list.