Facebook Faults ‘Technical Issue’ After Calling Chinese President ‘Mr Shithole’
Image via 360b / Shutterstock.com
First he was Winnie-the-Pooh, and by an unfortunate twist of events, is now “Mr. Shithole.”
According to a report by Reuters, Facebook has apologized for mistranslating Chinese President Xi Jinping’s name as “Mr. Shithole” in a post by Myanmar’s State Counselor Office page.
The reference was made not just once, but four times when the post was translated to English from Burmese. Interestingly, the mistranslation did not appear when the same text was converted with Google’s translation tool.
Facebook addressed on Saturday that the error was the result of a “technical issue,” apologizing “for the offense [the mistranslation] has caused.”
The social network explained that since Xi was not in its Burmese database, the system inaccurately matched Xi’s name with Burmese words beginning with “xi” and “shi,” spelling out “shithole.”
Facebook added that it is taking measures to ensure such errors do not happen again.
Umm. Facebook seems to be translating “Xi Jinping” written in Burmese as “Mr Shithole”.
— Poppy McPherson (@poppymcp) January 18, 2020
This is a post on Aung San Suu Kyi’s official page, recounting her meeting with him yesterday... h/t @felizysolo
”kingdom of Mr Shithole” pic.twitter.com/B4V2cYjPJw
[via Business Insider, images via various sources]
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