Oh, bother…
According to Facebook an error caused its translator to translate Chinese Presiden Xi Jinping’s name as “Mr. Shithole” in its Burmese-to-English translation of certain posts. The social network apologized for this mistake, of course.
According to Reuters, the issue was spotted on the second day of Jinping’s visit to Myanmar, where he and state counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi signed plans for Beijing-backed infrastructure. News about the visit, which was published on the Councillor’s official Facebook page were, summarily, littered with references to a “Mr. Shithole”. This also carried over to a headline shared by Burmese news site Irrawaddy: “Dinner Honors President Shithole”. Notably, Google Translate didn’t make the same mistake; just a bunch of other ones, I’m sure, based on my experience with Google Translate.
Facebook’s statement on the matter:
We fixed a technical issue that caused incorrect translations from Burmese to English on Facebook. This should not have happened and we are taking steps to ensure it doesn’t happen again. We sincerely apologize for the offense this has caused.
Not like it matters much; Facebook is blocked in mainland China, as are we (probably, haven’t checked).
According to Facebook, the error was caused by the fact that their Burmese database didn’t have the name of China’s president. In tests, it tended to translate anything beginning with “xi” or “shi” into shithole.
Hilarious.
Source: Geek.com
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