NAYPYIDAW, Myanmar — Facebook apologized Saturday for a distasteful mistranslation of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s name from Burmese language posts during his much-touted visit to Myanmar. ADVERTISEMENTBut the historic moment was dimmed by the automatic translation feature on Myanmar’s Facebook page — which rendered Xi Jinping’s name from Burmese into English as “Mr Sh*thole”. The error most notably appeared on the official Facebook page of Myanmar’s civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Facebook said it did not have Xi’s name in its Burmese translations data. The company tested similar words in Burmese, and other words that start with “xi” and “shi” in Burmese, which use the same character, were also translated as “sh*thole,” Facebook said.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer January 19, 2020 04:07 UTC