A PSN user was recently banned for having a username that contains the word “Jihad,” – an unfortunate move on Sony’s part, since that was the lad’s real name.
Jihad Khalid Almofadda has now been reinstated as a PSN user, but because of his username – iJihad – he was unable to access his account, online services, and games for a time.
See for yourself below:
For those who might not be aware, “Jihad” is a term often associated with terrorisim in western culture. The meaning is commonly linked with a war or struggle against those who don’t believe in Allah.
However, Almofadda pointed out that the literal meaning of the word is to struggle and put the effort in to do something “noble or good, or highly valued”.
Game Informer also notes that Almofadda is not the only person with “Jihad” in his username. There are at least 9,800 users who use it as part of their ID.
After having to post his plight on social media, Almofadda finally got to talk with PlayStation UK, which restored his account with a new username.
Unfortunately, this process came at a cost, as Almofadda shared on Reddit:
My Trophies will have syncing problems and could disappear, Friends are gone, and social communication is deleted! There’s no other way to it. The other interesting thing, he made the change from iJihad to Jiii–in just 2 seconds over the phone call! It’s not rocket science, but it needs much technical improvements (Noting my trophies are ZERO now after syncing).
A PlayStation representative reportedly told Almofadda that Sony is in discussions to allow name changes, though the company has said this a few times over the years.
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.