<a href="https://www.wionews.com/.../facebook-to-help-in-fight-against-polio- pakistan-274718">Facebook&nbsp;Inc</a> on Saturday blamed a&nbsp;technical&nbsp;error&nbsp;for&nbsp;Chinese&nbsp;leader Xi Jinping’s&nbsp;name&nbsp;appearing as “Mr Shithole” in posts on its platform when translated into English from Burmese, apologising for any offence&nbsp;caused.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/facebook-sued-in-us-federal-court-for-alleged-anti-competitive-conduct-274773">Facebook sued in US federal court for alleged anti competitive conduct</a>

The&nbsp;error&nbsp;came to light on the second day of a visit by the president to the Southeast Asian country, where Xi and state counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi signed dozens of agreements covering massive Beijing-backed infrastructure plans.

A statement about the visit published on Suu Kyi’s official&nbsp;Facebook&nbsp;page was littered with references to “Mr Shithole” when translated to English, while a headline in local news journal the Irrawaddy appeared as “Dinner honours president shithole”.

It was not clear how long the issue lasted but Google’s&nbsp;translation&nbsp;function did not show the same&nbsp;error.

<h6><img alt="Xi Jinping Name error" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="1be5e237-daa1-45a6-88d7-bf861fcf254f" src="//cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/Untitled%20design%20%285%29_18.jpg" /> 
 
Image: Facebook translation&nbsp;of Myanmar State Counsellor Office's Burmese post to English | Facebook</h6>

"We fixed a&nbsp;technical&nbsp;issue that&nbsp;caused&nbsp;incorrect&nbsp;translations from Burmese to English on&nbsp;Facebook. This should not have happened and we are taking steps to ensure it doesn’t happen again. We sincerely apologize for the offence this has&nbsp;caused,"&nbsp;Facebook&nbsp;said in a statement.

The&nbsp;Facebook&nbsp;system did not have President Xi Jinping's&nbsp;name&nbsp;in its Burmese database and guessed at the&nbsp;translation, the company said.&nbsp;Translation&nbsp;tests of similar words that start with "xi" and "shi" in Burmese also produced "shithole", it added.

Facebook&nbsp;is blocked in mainland China. But it is not blocked in Hong Kong and mainland companies advertise elsewhere on the platform, making China&nbsp;Facebook’s biggest country for revenue after the United States. It is setting up a new engineering team to focus specifically on the lucrative&nbsp;Chinese&nbsp;advertising business, Reuters reported last week.

Facebook&nbsp;has faced numerous problems with&nbsp;translation&nbsp;from Burmese in the past. In 2018 it temporarily removed the function after a Reuters report showed the tool was producing bizarre results.

An investigation documented how the company was failing in its efforts to combat vitriolic Burmese language posts about Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims, some 730,000 of whom fled a military crackdown in 2017 that the U.N has said was conducted with “genocidal intent”.

It also showed the&nbsp;translation&nbsp;feature was flawed, citing an anti-Rohingya post advocating killing Muslims that was translated into English as “I shouldn’t have a rainbow in Myanmar”.

Facebook Inc on Saturday blamed a technical error for Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s name appearing as “Mr Shithole” in posts on its platform when translated into English from Burmese, apologising for any offence caused.

Facebook Inc on Saturday blamed a technical error for Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s name appearing as “Mr Shithole” in posts on its platform when translated into English from Burmese, apologising for any offence caused. Also read: Facebook sued in US federal court for alleged anti competitive conduct The error came to light on the second day of a visit by the president to the Southeast Asian country, where Xi and state counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi signed dozens of agreements covering massive Beijing-backed infrastructure plans. A statement about the visit published on Suu Kyi’s official Facebook page was littered with references to “Mr Shithole” when translated to English, while a headline in local news journal the Irrawaddy appeared as “Dinner honours president shithole”. It was not clear how long the issue lasted but Google’s translation function did not show the same error. Image: Facebook translation of Myanmar State Counsellor Office's Burmese post to English | Facebook "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 apologize for the offence this has caused," Facebook said in a statement. The Facebook system did not have President Xi Jinping's name in its Burmese database and guessed at the translation, the company said. Translation tests of similar words that start with "xi" and "shi" in Burmese also produced "shithole", it added. Facebook is blocked in mainland China. But it is not blocked in Hong Kong and mainland companies advertise elsewhere on the platform, making China Facebook’s biggest country for revenue after the United States. It is setting up a new engineering team to focus specifically on the lucrative Chinese advertising business, Reuters reported last week. Facebook has faced numerous problems with translation from Burmese in the past. In 2018 it temporarily removed the function after a Reuters report showed the tool was producing bizarre results. An investigation documented how the company was failing in its efforts to combat vitriolic Burmese language posts about Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims, some 730,000 of whom fled a military crackdown in 2017 that the U.N has said was conducted with “genocidal intent”. It also showed the translation feature was flawed, citing an anti-Rohingya post advocating killing Muslims that was translated into English as “I shouldn’t have a rainbow in Myanmar”.

Technical error caused vulgar translation of Xi Jinping's name: Facebook

China's cyber watchdog said on Wednesday it had deleted more than 7 million pieces of online information as well as 9,382 mobile apps, and it criticised tech giant Tencent's news app for spreading "vulgar information".

The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) said in a statement on its website the action was part of a clean-up of unacceptable and harmful information that started this month, adding that it had also shut down 733 websites.

The administration singled out Tencent's Tiantian Kuaibao news app, saying the platform had been ordered to make changes as it had been spreading "vulgar and low-brow information that was harmful and damaging to the internet ecosystem".

Tencent did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The regulator also criticised Huaban, a photo-sharing social network, as having "serious ecosystem problems". Huaban said on its website its online service had been temporarily taken down for upgrades.

Control of the internet has tightened under President Xi Jinping - an effort that has accelerated since 2016, as the ruling Communist Party seeks to crack down on dissent in the booming social media landscape.

In November, the CAC scrubbed 9,800 social media accounts of independent news providers for violations that included spreading politically harmful information and falsifying the history of the Communist Party.

China's cyber watchdog said on Wednesday it had deleted more than 7 million pieces of online information as well as 9,382 mobile apps, and it criticised tech giant Tencent's news app for spreading "vulgar information".

China's cyber watchdog said on Wednesday it had deleted more than 7 million pieces of online information as well as 9,382 mobile apps, and it criticised tech giant Tencent's news app for spreading "vulgar information". The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) said in a statement on its website the action was part of a clean-up of unacceptable and harmful information that started this month, adding that it had also shut down 733 websites. The administration singled out Tencent's Tiantian Kuaibao news app, saying the platform had been ordered to make changes as it had been spreading "vulgar and low-brow information that was harmful and damaging to the internet ecosystem". Tencent did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The regulator also criticised Huaban, a photo-sharing social network, as having "serious ecosystem problems". Huaban said on its website its online service had been temporarily taken down for upgrades. Control of the internet has tightened under President Xi Jinping - an effort that has accelerated since 2016, as the ruling Communist Party seeks to crack down on dissent in the booming social media landscape. In November, the CAC scrubbed 9,800 social media accounts of independent news providers for violations that included spreading politically harmful information and falsifying the history of the Communist Party.

China deletes seven million pieces of online information, thousands of apps

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