Rushdie uses Twitter against Facebook

BANGALORE, INDIA: "Victory! Facebook has buckled! I'm Salman Rushdie again. I feel so much better. An identity crisis at my age is no fun. Thank you Twitter!"

That's how writer Salman Rushdie, 64, gleefully declared his victory over Facebook in a name row. Apparently, Facebook had deactivated his account, demanding proof of his identity. But after he provided a photo of his passport, it used his first name Ahmed Rushdie as mentioned in the passport. But that irked Rushdie, who said the world knows him as Salman.

An Angry Rushdie posted a series of tweets venting his ire against Facebook and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. "They have reactivated my FB page as "Ahmed Rushdie,"in spite of the world knowing me as Salman. Morons. MarkZuckerberg? Are you listening?"

As a policy, Facebook insists on authenticating one's identity, or real names.

He said after his Facebook account was deactivated, he had to send a photo of his passport page to confirm it was his account. "THEN... ...they said yes, I was me, but insisted I use the name Ahmed."

He went on to ask: "Dear Facebook, forcing me to change my FB name from Salman to Ahmed Rushdie is like forcing J. Edgar to become John Hoover."

Finally, after Twitter was awash with messages from his followers, Facebook reverted to his old name. "Just received an apology from The Facebook Team. All is sweetness and light," he Tweeted.

Rushdie's Midnight's Children won Booker Prize in 1981.