“Australia: Hindu woman Swastika was de-platformed by Uber for 5 months because of her name, but fought against it and won”, Opindia, April 19, 2024:
“Swastika Chandra, a 35-year-old woman from Sydney and the multinational giant Uber are at odds after she was forbidden from using the services and removed from the platform for violating its terms only because of her name. Notably, Swastika/ Swastik are a common name in India because the Swastika symbol is an integral part of the Hindu faith. It symbolizes good fortune and prosperity in the ancient Sanskrit language.
The young mother stated that throughout her formative years in Fiji, she frequently heard the name called in class. It is a country with a large Indian population and Swastika is a popular name among them. She expressed, “It is a very common name. I personally know four or five other girls with the same name. In school, we had two or three other girls with the same name. It means good luck. It means good things to me.”
Her birth certificate, Australian citizenship certificate, health care card and driver’s license all bore her name without any trouble. However, Uber suspended her account in October of last year citing her name’s appropriation by Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party and neo-Nazis as a breach of their conditions of usage. She was informed that in order to regain access to the application, she would need to modify her name…..”
Read the full article at Opindia.com
