Previously known as Jenna Rogers, the woman, now named Jemmaroid von Laalaa, opened a Facebook account in 2008 using an invented name to avoid getting friend requests from people she didn’t want to befriend on the social network. The plan backfired when she lost access to her account.
“I can’t believe I’m stuck with this stupid name and I still can’t get into my Facebook,” von Laalaa told The Independent.
Eager to regain access to the account, Rogers changed her name by deed poll so that she could transfer official documents, such as her drivers’ license, into her adopted Facebook pseudonym.
Getting back into Facebook’s good graces proved harder than the now-named Jemmaroid Laalaa expected. Her efforts to contact the company has been met with automated messages that Facebook is looking into the matter, according to ITV.
Laalaa still cannot access her account and told Mashable, “It’s hard to speak to a human being as well, all I get is computerized messages back. It’s so frustrating.”
Facebook’s terms of service says “users provide their real names and information, and we need your help to keep it that way.”
There may be more than using a pseudonym that has caused Facebook to suspend the woman’s account. Reportedly, the woman, then named Rogers, sent a photo of a faked bank card as proof of identity. Then, Facebook suspended her account.
The name policy has caused other people problems as well — victims of domestic violence, Native Americans and transgender people — who have reasons to have a non-legal name of Facebook. In May, a coalition of people called #MyNameIs protested outside Facebook’s Menlo Park headquarters over its real-name policy, according to Mashable.
Sister Roma was one of the first to call out Facebook’s policy last fall, after getting locked out of her account. Many other drag performers and transgender people reported the same situation as well.
