Facebook has been forced to apologise after translating the name of Chinese president Xi Jinping to “Mr Sh*thole” for some users.
The error occurred on the official Facebook page of Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi, in a post that recounted her meeting with Mr Xi during his state visit to Myanmar.
Originally written in Burmese, Facebook’s translation into English referred to Mr Xi as “Mr Sh*thole” six separate times.
“Mr Sh*thole, President of China, arrives at 4pm,” the translation stated.
“Consultant Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is friendly. And the president of China, Mr Sh*thole, signed a guest record of the house of representatives.”
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On 4 Feb, 2004, 19-year-old Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg launched a website called ‘TheFacebook’ from his dorm. Within 24 hours the college social network had more than 1,000 users
Wikimedia Commons
Within one week of launching, fellow Harvard students Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss and Divya Narendra accused Zuckerberg of stealing their idea. It would be four years later when the resulting lawsuit was finally settled
The social network finally opened it platform to everyone on 26 September, 2006. The move proved the catalyst in supercharging the site’s already explosive growth
PA
Yahoo offered $1 billion to buy Facebook in September 2006 but Zuckerberg turned it down. ‘I don’t know what I could do with the money,’ Zuckerberg reportedly said. ‘I’d just start another social networking site’
Reuters
In September 2009, almost five years since the site launched, Facebook turned a profit for the first time
Getty Images/iStockphoto
Facebook overtook MySpace in 2010 to become the world’s most popular social network
In 2011, Google launched its own social network that it hoped would knock Facebook from its perch. Despite its initial success, Google+ ultimately failed and will be shut down completely in 2019
Getty
On 18 May, 2012, Facebook went public. The initial public offering raised $16 billion – the third largest in US history
Facebook acquired Instagram in April 2012 for $1 billion, consolidating its position as the world’s leading social network
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On 4 October, 2012, Zuckerberg announced that Facebook had hit 1 billion users. ‘If you’re reading this: thank you for giving me and my little team the honour of serving you,’ he wrote in a blog post
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In February 2014 Facebook acquired the messaging app WhatsApp for $19.3 billion
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Despite the scandals and subsequent #DeleteFacebook campaign, Facebook posted record profits just before its 15th anniversary, the equivalent of $7.37 from each of its 2.32 billions users
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“We are aware of an issue regarding Burmese to English translations on Facebook, and we’re doing everything we can to fix this as quickly as possible,” a Facebook spokesperson told The Independent when first contacted about the error.
“This issue is not a reflection of the way our products should work and we sincerely apologise for the offence this has caused.”
The social network relies on human and automated moderators to fix incorrect content, as well as reports from its users. The issue was fixed after several hours and the spokesperson said Facebook is carrying out an investigation into the incident.
“We are working to identify the cause to ensure that it doesn’t happen again,” they said.
Facebook, which is banned in China, has previously apologised for errors with its automatic-translation service.
In one instance in 2017, the feature erroneously translated “good morning” into “attack them” on a post written by a Palestinian construction worker.
The man was arrested by Israeli police after they suspected he was planning a vehicle attack using a bulldozer. He was released after the mistake was realised.
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