A reader of The Register (link) Ed Callahan discovered that Yahoo! does not accept any identities which include the words “allah”, after failing to get Verizon (partnership with Yahoo!) to accept her surname (”Callahan”).

Words like “binladen” and “osama” are banned as well. However, “god”, “jesus”, “buddah”, and “mohammad” are allowed. More banned and allowed words are available in a blog entry entitled “Is Yahoo! banning Allah?“.

Update: Yahoo! unbans “Allah”
Two days after the “Allah” banning issue reported, Yahoo! lifted the ban from the word “allah” in Yahoo! IDs.

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.

[Read The Register]

Attached Thumbnails

 

Seems to me the reason for the confusion has a lot to do with the name. After all, what kind of people do you suppose run a company called "Yahoo?"