by David F. Gallagher
Bits Blog
The New York Times
August 7, 2008
A reader wrote in to say he had heard that
Microsoft was not letting people choose
usernames with the word “Tibet” in them
when signing up for its online services. This
turns out to be true, technically speaking. If
you try to select such a name you get an
error message:
This problem tripped up the Australian
author of a book on Tibet, who declared
the whole thing “a bit suss.” This blogger
cries censorship.
Big American tech companies have given us
plenty of reasons to be cynical about how
far they will go to keep China’s leaders
happy and keep their fingers in the
Chinese market (see Fig. 1, Fig. 2). And
China’s leaders would prefer that everyone
just not mention those unruly Tibetans,
especially with the Olympics on the way.
But would the Chinese regime really feel
threatened by the creation of, say,
ILoveTibet@hotmail.com? And even if it did,
would Microsoft really agree to help
perpetuate that insecurity?
A Microsoft spokeswoman had a different
explanation. The company blocks
usernames that include the names of
various financial institutions. This is meant
to make life harder for those seeking to
impersonate a bank using an official-
looking e-mail address in order to steal
customers’ passwords. In this case
Microsoft is blocking usernames
containing “tib,” apparently to protect
customers of TIB Bank in Florida.
So Microsoft’s take is that ILoveTibet and
all variations on that theme are just
collateral damage in the war on phishing.
But the ban on “tib” also rules out many
other highly desirable usernames —
BrokeMyTibia, AntiBlogging and
NastiBoy23, for example. A wider check
indicates that CitibankStinks PayPalStinks
and IHateWellsFargo are also off-limits. Let
the rumors of a banking industry
conspiracy begin.
UPDATE 8/8/08 8:48 a.m. Various
commenters have pointed out that
CitibankStinks, which contains “tib,” was a
dumb example. Others note that
Microsoft’s list of financial institutions is
not very comprehensive or foolproof
— “etrade” and “wells-fargo” both work.
But Svetlana Gladkova did a little survey
and found that both Microsoft and Yahoo
block several well-known names that
Google doesn’t. Everyone seems to agree
that TIB Bank is not a well-known name
(here’s another TIB). Meanwhile Scott Tibbs
is feeling unwanted.
UPDATE 8/8/08 5:45 P.M. At some point
today Microsoft changed the signup form
for its online services. Whereas before it
would tell you that your requested
username “contains a word or phrase that
is not allowed,” it now simply says the
username is “not available.” This makes it
harder to spot names with banned terms in
them, so it’s harder to figure out what’s on
the blacklist. As a bonus, it also sounds less
authoritarian.