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The renowned novelist took to Twitter on Monday night to slam social networking website Facebook for deactivating his account over confusion about his real name.
Facebook had deactivated his account, demanded proof of identity and then turned him into Ahmed Rushdie, which is how he is identified on his passport, he wrote. He insisted that he be allowed to use his middle name -- Salman, the one he is universally known by -- instead of his first name -- Ahmed -- on Facebook.
Rushdie expressed his displeasure in several tweets and tagging Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in one he wrote, "Where are you hiding, Mark? Come out here and give me back my name!"
But two hours after his first tweet, Facebook team gave in and restored his account with his name as Salman Rushdie. A cheerful Rushdie tweeted, "Facebook has buckled! I'm Salman Rushdie again. I feel SO much better. An identity crisis at my age is no fun."
According to Rushdie, he had to send a photo of his passport page to verify his identity, but he wrote that Facebook insisted that he use his first name. But an apology was also tendered. "Just received an apology from The #Facebook Team. All is sweetness and light," he said.
Earlier, the writer had fought to use @salmanrushdie on Twitter after he found that an imposter was already using his name.