Boing Boing Staging

Lyft said their names are offensive. Candice Poon, Cara Dick, and Mike Finger disagree.

The ride-sharing company Lyft flagged certain users’ real names as offensive content, and told a number of individuals including Candice Poon, Cara Dick, and Mike Finger that they were ordered to get new names by December 21, or be banned from Lyft.

The real-names brouhaha began when some Lyft users got a message from Lyft on Thursday that said their names violate the company’s community guidelines.

From Business Insider:

In the notification, Lyft didn’t provide a reason for flagging the account beyond saying that the name “doesn’t align with its Community Guidelines.” Many of the Lyft members who received the prompt have names that could be mistaken for inappropriate content, such as Nicole Cumming, Cara Dick, and Dick DeBartolo. The notification told users that they must change their name by December 21.

Lyft said in a statement to Business Insider that the prompt was sent in error.

“Some members of the Lyft community were using names that were either inaccurate, offensive or both. In trying to fix the problem, we cast too wide of a net,” a company spokesperson said. “We were well-intentioned, but our response clearly led to errors that we are working to correct, and we apologize.”

Well, that’s awkward.

Lyft thought some users’ real names were offensive content. Candice Poon, Cara Dick, Mike Finger and others were ordered to get new names by December 21. [businessinsider.com]

Exit mobile version