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Facebook’s Auto-translation Changes Name Of Chinese President To 'Shithole'

January 19, 2020

The social media platform’s autocorrect translated the name of the president to ‘Shithole’ in a post made during his visit to Myanmar.

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Facebook has apologised for the mistranslation of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s name from Burmese to English  language. 

The social media platform’s autocorrect translated the name of the president to ‘Shithole’ in a post made during his visit to Myanmar.

The error most notably appeared on the official Facebook page of Myanmar’s civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.

“Mr Shithole, President of China arrives at 4pm,” said a translated announcement posted earlier on Saturday. 

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“President of China, Mr Shithole, signed a guest record of the house of representatives,” it continued.

Facebook said it was sorry and blamed a technical glitch.

“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 apologise for the offense this has caused,” a Facebook spokesperson said.