Village too Effin rude for Facebook
3rd December 2011[/align]
A VILLAGE called Effin has been banned from Facebook — because its name is considered offensive. Residents of the Irish parish have found they cannot register it as their place of birth on the social networking site. The name is automatically censored by Facebook, just like more traditional four-letter expletives.
Ann Marie Kennedy, who was born in the County Limerick village, has launched a campaign to get it recognised by the site. But when she tried to create a group called "Please get my hometown Effin recognised", it was also rejected. She said: "It came back with an error message saying 'offensive'. I would like to be able to put Effin on my profile page and so would many other Effin people around the world to proudly say that they are from Effin, County Limerick, but it won't recognise that. It keeps coming up as Effingham, Illinois, or Effingham, New Hampshire, and it gives suggestions of other places. It will recognise Limerick but I'm not from Limerick city, I'm from Effin. I'm a proud Effinwoman. And I always will be an Effinwoman."
Ms Kennedy is now trying to get the village's population of around 1,000 behind her cause. One option would be to use the original Irish spelling of the village's name, Eifinn — but that's not the point, she says.
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"Please get my hometown Effin recognised" -
