Facebook apologizes for automatically translating the name of the president of China as “Mr. Smelly Hole”
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The company explained the error as a technical failure.
Facebook apologized for automatically translating the name of Chinese leader Xi Jinping into English as “Mr. Smelly Hole” (Mr. Shithole). The transfer appeared in the account of the Secretary of State of Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi, according to Reuters.
Aung San Suu Kyi wrote a message in Burmese about a meeting with the Chinese president. The automatic translator of the social network instead of the name of Xi Jinping inserted the words “Mr. Smelly Hole.” The headline of the Burmese newspaper Irrawaddy was translated into English with the same error: “Dinner in honor of the president stinking hole” (Dinner honors president shithole).
Facebook explained the error as a technical malfunction. The company believes that the failure could occur due to the fact that the name of Xi Jinping is missing in the Burmese database. The system automatically selected similar-sounding words. The Chinese Foreign Ministry declined to comment on the situation.
That was not supposed to happen. We are making efforts to prevent this from happening in the future, and we sincerely apologize for the insult.
Facebook representative
In 2018 in Facebook also appeared with translation problems with the Burmese to English – radical statements translated correctly. Then the company temporarily disabled the translation function from this language on social networks.
Facebook apologized for automatically translating the name of Chinese leader Xi Jinping into English as “Mr. Smelly Hole” (Mr. Shithole). The transfer appeared in the account of the Secretary of State of Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi, according to Reuters.
Aung San Suu Kyi wrote a message in Burmese about a meeting with the Chinese president. The automatic translator of the social network instead of the name of Xi Jinping inserted the words “Mr. Smelly Hole.” The headline of the Burmese newspaper Irrawaddy was translated into English with the same error: “Dinner in honor of the president stinking hole” (Dinner honors president shithole).
Facebook explained the error as a technical malfunction. The company believes that the failure could occur due to the fact that the name of Xi Jinping is missing in the Burmese database. The system automatically selected similar-sounding words. The Chinese Foreign Ministry declined to comment on the situation.
In 2018 in Facebook also appeared with translation problems with the Burmese to English – radical statements translated correctly. Then the company temporarily disabled the translation function from this language on social networks.