Epic Erroneously Blocks Man For Being On U.S. Watchlist

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If you have a name that matches anyone on the Specially Designated Nationals list, creating an Epic Games account is a no go.

"When I went to the website to register for an account, I hit submit and that's when I faced the red text. I was shocked," Dr. Khan tells Gamasutra via email. "Initially, I thought I had been hacked. I literally stopped everything and told myself verbally out loud, 'What the heck?' I felt dehumanized and discriminated against. Frankly, it hurt."
 
Tim Sweeney posted that Epic has already fixed the problem and he apologized to the guy. The problem was related to export restrictions being enabled for UE4, in order to "prevent" it from being used in large scale modeling.
 
Well shit, nothing to get outraged about here.. Gonna have to move along and find something else to be outraged about..
 
Beside the ridiculousness of having the shady watchlish tied to a game engine, it's amusing that the most common name on the planet is listed there, surprise surprise, tons of false positives.

They should put John Smith in there while they're at it, it's not like they can lose a lawsuit, fed's above the law when it comes to anything they can invoke national security on.
 
This guy needs to just get over it. i am so tired of people blowing crap out of purportion because its a chance to get noticed. pound sand.
 
azuza001 said:
This guy needs to just get over it. i am so tired of people blowing crap out of purportion because its a chance to get noticed. pound sand.
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No shit. If that happened I would just email the company support and have it sorted out. I highly doubt I would feel violated.
 
I'm sure the dastardly fellows on the list won't put in a fake name to register, so this is totally effective. The dastardly ladies seemed to have figured it out though, one of them is listed as aka Sally Jones. :)
 
azuza001 said:
This guy needs to just get over it. i am so tired of people blowing crap out of purportion because its a chance to get noticed. pound sand.
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Came to post this. Shit like "' I felt dehumanized and discriminated against. Frankly, it hurt." and "friends...who were outraged and shocked". Not being satisfied with Epic's response? Either this guy is a huge bitch, or he's hoping some shady lawyer will try and contact him to take a cheap shot at Epic. I suppose either way, the guy is just a huge bitch.
 
I'm pretty shocked really.

So far everyone in here is blaming the guy for being a cry baby. And I agree that simply pointing as "islamaphobia" is a distraction.

But guys, think about the shit that is going on behind the scenes here. Did any of you know that signing up for a game, cross references you against a government watch list? And none of you have issue with this?

The Free Game zone is over yonder, right next to the Free Speech zone. Normal business hours are Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2:30PM to 4:00PM.
 
Everyone in the US who exports/sells anything has to comply with these rules. You could not sell someone a stick of gum if they are on these watch lists. We look up everyone we sell at my work (software).

It sucks, but this happens when anyone is trying to comply with a law like this. It is extremely time consuming and tedious to ensure that someone doesn't accidentally use your video game for terror.
 
Very interesting ... I wonder how many other U.S. companies are doing this; checking a "Specially Designated Nationals" list. I wonder if this person would have a problem applying for credit or healthcare.
 
westrock2000 said:
I'm pretty shocked really.

But guys, think about the shit that is going on behind the scenes here. Did any of you know that signing up for a game, cross references you against a government watch list? And none of you have issue with this?
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I am not really concerned as I have already pre registered myself at White house . gov by answering their surveys about obama and telling them I thought him a terrorist and hold him directly responsible for thousand of lives taken due to total disregard to his commanding officers but that is a whole day of discussion in itself as I think most politicians are terrorist.

islamaphobe is not even real, people have great cause to not like them as they are terrorist or supporters of terrorist. Take a look at Japan, no muslimes allowed yet no terrorist attacks, strange.
 
Wierdo said:
Beside the ridiculousness of having the shady watchlish tied to a game engine, it's amusing that the most common name on the planet is listed there, surprise surprise, tons of false positives.

They should put John Smith in there while they're at it, it's not like they can lose a lawsuit, fed's above the law when it comes to anything they can invoke national security on.
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Why is anyone even talking about this?

It started out fine, a few of us, me as well, making innocuous comments about how this whole thing is no big deal at all and now some of you are trying to make it into one?

Do you not understand, it was a simple and understandable mistake. Deal already :p
 
westrock2000 said:
I'm pretty shocked really.

So far everyone in here is blaming the guy for being a cry baby. And I agree that simply pointing as "islamaphobia" is a distraction.

But guys, think about the shit that is going on behind the scenes here. Did any of you know that signing up for a game, cross references you against a government watch list? And none of you have issue with this?

The Free Game zone is over yonder, right next to the Free Speech zone. Normal business hours are Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2:30PM to 4:00PM.
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Did you get that it was a mistake, that the intent was "signing up for restricted technology is bounced against a government watch list".
 
Okay, they blocked a guy named Khan?

No, not making a stupid Star Trek reference here.

And Epic couldn't see how epically DUMB their name filter was?

Kahn is actually a fairly common name. Almost like "Smith".

Plus, climbing into bed with The Fed... How fucking stupid ARE they?
 
AK0tA said:
I am not really concerned as I have already pre registered myself at White house . gov by answering their surveys about obama and telling them I thought him a terrorist and hold him directly responsible for thousand of lives taken due to total disregard to his commanding officers but that is a whole day of discussion in itself as I think most politicians are terrorist.

islamaphobe is not even real, people have great cause to not like them as they are terrorist or supporters of terrorist. Take a look at Japan, no muslimes allowed yet no terrorist attacks, strange.
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Christians commit the same terrorist acts. They just do it under the guise of the US military.

Funny how when the US military accidentally bombs a hospital in Afghanistan, it is an "oopsie" but if Al Queda were to accidentally bomb a hospital, it would be a terrorist attack.
 
westrock2000 said:
I'm pretty shocked really.

So far everyone in here is blaming the guy for being a cry baby. And I agree that simply pointing as "islamaphobia" is a distraction.

But guys, think about the shit that is going on behind the scenes here. Did any of you know that signing up for a game, cross references you against a government watch list? And none of you have issue with this?

The Free Game zone is over yonder, right next to the Free Speech zone. Normal business hours are Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2:30PM to 4:00PM.
Click to expand...
I always find it humorous that some people still think the internet is in any way private. It's probably the most public, most scrutinized thing you ever participate in. If you use the net you are watched by the world and all the security organizations in it.
 
Mathematician said:
I always find it humorous that some people still think the internet is in any way private. It's probably the most public, most scrutinized thing you ever participate in. If you use the net you are watched by the world and all the security organizations in it.
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Sure, but to be automatically run against a government no-fly list and denied access to a game?
 
lcpiper said:
Why is anyone even talking about this?

It started out fine, a few of us, me as well, making innocuous comments about how this whole thing is no big deal at all and now some of you are trying to make it into one?

Do you not understand, it was a simple and understandable mistake. Deal already :p
Click to expand...

Missing the forest for the trees here imho: Who's accountable when gov decides to put your name on that secret list? There's no checks and balances protecting a citizen from being a victim of false identity or accusation, that's no acceptable in a democracy imho.
 
Good thing we have a representative republic instead of a democracy then, eh?
 
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