A woman named Isis Anchalee had her Facebook account suspended by the social media company, apparently because of her first name.

"Facebook thinks I`m a terrorist. Apparently sending them a screenshot of my passport is not good enough for them to reopen my account," Ms Anchalee, an engineer based in San Francisco, tweeted after it froze her account on Monday. She implied that the account had been suspended because of her first name`s association with the Islamic State terrorist organisation, known as Isis, Isil or Daesh.

Ms Anchalee`s account remained suspended even after she sent Facebook proof of her identity with a screenshot of her passport, before finally being unfrozen after repeated requests.

Facebook has for some time operated a "real names" policy, which has generated controversy in several communities. When Facebook suspects that an account is not going by the user`s real name, it can suspend it and ask the user for verification of their name.

In several cases, this has seen people using their legal name on Facebook suspended because a moderator finds it suspicious, and others who use pseudonyms or don`t use their legal name have seen accounts frozen.

Facebook promised to relax the real name policy earlier this year, saying it would add additional tools in the coming months to improve its verification and moderation.

Omid Farivar, a Facebook employee, tweeted at Ms Anchalee to apologise after she raised the issue, saying it had been reported and that Facebook would fix it.

Ms Anchalee has previously highlighted the issue of gender bias in the technology world, writing about sterotypes of developers and starting the#ILookLikeAn Engineer social media campaign.

She suggested after her account was unfrozen that referring to the terrorist group as "Daesh" may prevent the scenario happening again.

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