"Santa Claus" gets Facebook account unfreezed

A man lives in Alaska state of the United States who has legally changed his name to Santa Claus recently received a new year "present" from Facebook, as his account on the platform was finally restored.

"We're very sorry about this mistake. The account was removed in error and restored as soon as we were able to investigate," Facebook said Tuesday in a statement.

"Our team processes millions of reports each week, and we sometimes get things wrong," it was quoted by local media as saying.

Claus' Facebook account was suspended Sunday, right on Christmas Day, as Facebook claimed that it looked like someone had gotten into his account via phishing.

Although Claus did not buy that, he still had to send Facebook staff various documents to prove his identity.

In order to retrieve his account that has been used for eight years, Claus provided copies of his passport, Alaska driver's license, his letter of appointment to the North Pole City Council and so on.

As Facebook reinstated his account on Wednesday, Claus still felt confused as the social platform did not give the exact reason for the blocking.

"They just don't believe my name is Santa Claus or I live in North Pole," Claus complaint to local media, saying he felt singled out as many other accounts used the same name.

On his Facebook page, Claus introduces himself as "a child advocate and monk." The man was elected as a North Pole city councilman last October, according to the News-Miner newspaper of Alaska's Fairbanks city.

With over 30,000 likes, Claus' personal Facebook page is used to share photos of Alaska and "nice quotes" about life and religion.

source: Xinhua