Last weekend Muhammad Zakir Khan, an avid gamer and assistant professor at Broward College in Florida, booted up his PC and attempted to sign up for Epic Games' MOBA-inspired Paragon beta. Unbeknownst to Khan, however, was that his name name—along with many others—is on the US government's "Specially Designated Nationals list," and as such was blocked from signing up.

"Your account creation has been blocked as a result of a match against the Specially Designated Nationals list maintained by the United States of America's Office of Foreign Assets control," read the form. "If you have questions, please contact customer service at accounts@epicgames.com."

Understandably perturbed, Khan tweeted a screen grab of the form saying: "@EpicGames My name is Khan and I am not a terrorist. #Islamophobia"

Most won't have heard of the "Specially Designated Nationals list," published by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). According to the US Department of Treasury’s website, the blacklist is meant to track criminals working within the US.

"The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the US Department of the Treasury administers and enforces economic and trade sanctions based on US foreign policy and national security goals against targeted foreign countries and regimes, terrorists, international narcotics traffickers, those engaged in activities related to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and other threats to the national security, foreign policy or economy of the United States."

The question is—regardless of its actual security merits—why was this government list associated with something as simple as signing up for the beta of a video game in the first place?

Epic Games founder Tim Sweeney replied to Khan's tweet, explaining that the company blocked his signup because his name was on a list circulated by the US Treasury. However, the filter was never intended for use in consumer products, but rather in Unreal Engine 4, which the company licences out to developers to create games.

@TheHellsage @Muzzakh @imraansiddiqi The filter was intended for UE4 (used in large international commercial projects), rather than games. — Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) January 10, 2016

"Sorry, this isn't intended. We're working to fix ASAP. Cause: Overly broad filter related to US trade restrictions," read one of Sweeney's tweets. "Understood and sorry. This is bad filtering code. It checks a Federal export restriction list based solely on name!" read another.

While Khan noted that he didn't experience the same blocking using services from the likes of Blizzard, Valve, and EA, the error on Epic's side does at least appear to have been fixed. Khan later took to Twitter, saying: "I'm surprised they didn't catch it earlier, but am grateful @TimSweeneyEpic apologized and his team worked hard to correct the mistake."

This isn't the first time the games industry has been insensitive with its username policies. Back in 2008, Microsoft was criticised for banning Xbox Live gamertags with the word "gay" in them. This not only affected those who just happened to live in places like Fort Gay, or have the surname Gaywood, for instance, but also those who wished to legitimately convey their sexuality via their gamertag. Microsoft changed its policies two years later, allowing acknowledgement of sexual orientation, faith, race, and nationality in usernames and profiles.