Lyft Blocking Naughty Names According to Users

In one of the funniest tech stories of the year, is Lyft blocking naughty names on its platform?

Yes, according to some users. Amazingly, Lyft is blocking people with last names like “Cummings”, “Finger,” and “Dick”.

Those people want to sign up to use the ride-hailing service. However, they are being told their names are inappropriate and don’t match with Lyft’s guidelines. As a result, these users must change their name if they want to keep using the service.

Of course, this is a problem for some people who admittedly have suggestive numbers but are using their real name.

Image: Flickr

Lyft Blocking Naughty Names

Furthermore, some customers with non-English names are also being blocked by Lyft. For example, Kwame Som-Pimpong says he is unable to join the service. Speaking to The Verge, Som-Pingpoing said he has contacted Lyft to find out how he can proceed.

More Funny Posts

• Bank Accidentally Makes Woman a Millionaire
• Christmas Tree Thief Becomes Santa for a Day
• Cowboy Pigeon Invasion Causes Confusion in Las Vegas

Taking to Twitter, Jen Dick says she has faced the same problem and believes it is caused by the Scunthorpe problem.

If you’re unfamiliar with the term, it refers to someone who is blocked from an online service for having what is deemed to be a rude username. However, the Scunthorpe Problem was named 1996 when AOL blocked people in the town of Scunthorpe (UK) from creating accounts. That’s because the town name has a very rude word contained within it.

Despite that, Lyft’s issue is arguably different because people are using a real name and not a username.

Same thing happened to me, but I knew exactly why they flagged my name. (I contacted them via @AskLyft and they're looking into it.) I'm guessing it's Scunthorpe Problem (https://t.co/IRUpGzjGO3)

— Jen Dick (@Jennifer_Dick) December 19, 2019

Apology

As for Lyft’s response, the company said through a bot on Twitter that it wants emails and phone numbers from all affected users. Later, a spokesperson apologized for the problem.

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

What do you think of this hilarious tech story? Let us know if you think Lyft blocking naughty names is the right thing to do.