mobanmarketNaypyidaw, Myanmar: Facebook apologised Saturday for a distasteful mistranslation of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s name from Burmese language posts during his much-touted visit to Myanmar.
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His two-day visit to Myanmar’s capital Naypyidaw was the first made by a Chinese leader in almost two decades.
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But the historic moment was dimmed by the automatic translation feature on Myanmar’s Facebook – which rendered Xi Jinping’s name from Burmese into English as “Mr Shithole”.
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The scatalogical error most notably appeared on the official Facebook page of Myanmar’s civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
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“Mr Shithole, President of China arrives at 4 PM,” said a translated announcement posted earlier Saturday.
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“President of China, Mr. Shithole, signed a guest record of the house of representatives,” it continued.
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A Facebook spokesperson told AFP the social platform “has fixed the issue regarding Burmese to English translations” on their site.
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“We sincerely apologise for the offense this has caused,” they said in an emailed statement.
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The company said it was unable to give any further details about whether the embarrassing error was due to a hack, software issues or something else.
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Tech-nascent Myanmar loves Facebook.
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The platform is the most popular site for news, entertainment and chat – many even see it as synonymous with the internet.
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Politicians and government agencies also use it for official statements and announcements.
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The site – which has more than two billion users globally – is restricted in China.
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The Morning and Evening Brief###
The Morning and Evening Brief