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Facebook apologizes after Chinese president’s name translated into vulgar phrase

by J. Edward Moreno - 01/18/20 2:19 PM ET

Facebook issued an apology Saturday after Chinese President Xi Jinping’s name appeared as “Mr. Shithole” when users on the site attempted to translate posts from Burmese to English.

The error came as Xi visited Myanmar to meet with Burmese State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi to discuss infrastructure plans. Suu Kyi posted about the meeting on her Facebook page, where the comments section filled with references to the vulgar translation.

Umm. Facebook seems to be translating “Xi Jinping” written in Burmese as “Mr Shithole”.

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

— Poppy McPherson (@poppymcp) January 18, 2020

“We have fixed an issue regarding Burmese to English translations on Facebook and are working to identify the cause to ensure that it doesn’t happen again,” Facebook said in a statement obtained by The Hill. “This issue is not a reflection of the way our products should work and we sincerely apologize for the offense this has caused.”

The Google translation tool was not marking the same error, suggesting the error happened internally on Facebook.

In a later statement obtained via email to The Hill, Facebook said it determined the incorrect translation was due to a “technical issue” that it is working to fix.

“We fixed a technical issue that caused incorrect translations from Burmese to English on Facebook,” it said. “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.”

Tags Aung San Suu Kyi China Facebook Myanmar Xi Jinping