Facebook issued an apology on Saturday, January 18, for a technical error that resulted in the Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s name being translated from Burmese to English as “Mr Shithole”.
The error was discovered on the Facebook page of Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi, in a post detailing her meeting with Mr. Xi during his state visit to Myanmar. The two leaders signed numerous agreements, including extensive Beijing-backed infrastructure plans.
While the duration of the error’s presence is uncertain, a quick check showed that Google’s translation function did not produce the same error. Facebook’s translation into English referred to Mr. Xi as “Mr Sh*thole” six separate times in the post.
The translated content included:
“Mr Sh*thole, President of China, arrives at 4pm.
“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.”
Reacting to the error, a Facebook spokesperson stated to The Independent that they are actively addressing the issue.
The spokesperson stated:
“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.
“This issue is not a reflection of the way our products should work and we sincerely apologize for the offense this has caused.”
It was also revealed that the Facebook system lacks President Xi Jinping’s name in its Burmese database, leading to the incorrect translation.
Although Facebook is blocked in mainland China, it remains accessible in Hong Kong. Mainland companies also advertise on the platform, making China the largest source of revenue after the United States.