Muslim man blocked from signing up for a video game because his name is similar to a terrorist

A man attempting to sign up to the beta for “Paragon,” a MOBA by Epic Games, was denied access due to his name being similar to a financier of a Pakistani militant group. Epic Games, a well-known video game company, mistakenly used a Treasury sanctions list to block suspicious people from signing up and the Muslim American professor was blocked from registering.

Muhammad “Zakir” Khan, is a speech professor at Broward College in Florida. According to a police accountability database, the man also works as the executive director of the Transparency and Accountability Project. His interest in games made him sign up for the beta gameplay of an upcoming game “Paragon” by Epic Games. But when the man entered his full name for registration, through the official website of the game, he was informed that he is not allowed to create an account.

The reason behind why the gamer was not allowed to register was later explained by the game developer. The developer took Twitter to respond to the several Tweets of Khan. The developer’s official Twitter account suggests that Khan’s name matches one on the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets (OFCA) Control sanction list.

The OFAC in the US regularly circulates a list of people that US citizens are not allowed to do business with. Epic Games also implemented the same list into its website. But the game’s website only checked the name at the initial stage of registration and it blocked Khan.

“If you’re on the list, no U.S. person is allowed to transact with you,” said Kaveh Miremadi, a sanctions lawyer based in the Washington, D.C. as quoted by The Intercept.

In an interview with The Intercept on Monday, Khan said that Epic Games has fixed the issue and he is now happy the problem was resolved. According to Khan, he’s been playing games since childhood and this is the first time a game company blocked him from playing a game.