14 DAY TRIAL // A woman named Hiroko Yoda was not allowed to create an account on Facebook. After eliminating all the other sources that could have determined the social network to reject her registration, she came to the conclusion that her last name was the reason for it.
Having to share her cognomen with the famous Star Wars character turned out to reduce her chances of using her real name in the social group, because many have claimed, in time, before she made the request, to bear the exact same name. People are required to fill in the application form using their real name, so the team at Facebook decided to put “Yoda” on a list of forbidden items, to avoid any kind of temptation.
The name Yoda is so common in Japan that, up to a point, the woman had not even realized that she shared hers with the Jedi master from George Lucas' movie. “So even though I of course saw the films here in Japan, I never made a connection between the character Yoda and my own name. But whenever I leave Japan, it's a different story. People think I changed my name because I'm a crazy Star Wars fan, or that I'm just kidding around. Even people who know I'm not making it up are always giving me Yoda trinkets and keychains and figures, so I had this little shrine to him going on for a while.” she writes on the blog that she shares with her boyfriend.
Ironically, her name is actually pronounced differently in Japanese and, also, when written in kanji symbols, does not show any resemblance to the character's. In the end, Hiroko decided to create her account on a slightly different version of her name, which, come to think of it, isn't exactly fair. If she managed to register with a name that she claimed to be real, but in fact wasn't, how is that better for Facebook than if she had been allowed to use her unconventional, but genuine name? Clearly, the policies employed by social networks to ensure that no one can hold them responsible in case of a hoax employing a fake name are sometimes carried too far.