Facebook in Trouble As Hindi Cuss Word Is Translated to ‘Muslim’

In a terrible faux pas, the site translated the Hindi expletive ‘Mada****d’ into ‘Muslim’.

Picture is for representational purposes only. (Photo: iStock)

If there wasn’t enough hate propagating against Muslims intentionally, there is now an instance of ‘unintentional’ racial slur as well.

In a terrible faux pas, Facebook translated the Hindi expletive ‘Mada****d’ into the word ‘Muslim’ apparently because of a bug.

This sparked a livid discussion on social media with people sharing screenshots of posts showing the word written in Hindi and its translation. When Facebook realised the offensive mistake, it immediately corrected it and now if you type the cuss word, it translates to ‘idiot’.

People tried the word in different sentences and it always said ‘Muslim’ when asked for a translation.

Screenshot of the expletive translating to Muslim. (Photo Courtesy: Facebook)

The reactions to this echoed how abhorrent the mistake looked especially in an environment where slurs against Muslims are very prevalent.

Screenshot of the expletive translating to Muslim. (Photo Courtesy: Facebook)

The culprit was a bug in the system, Facebook said in a statement.

The statement read:

The translation of posts happens using an automated system. Our translations team looked into the issue, and in this case found a bug in the way our system filters profanity that caused a portion of the post to be translated incorrectly. The team has corrected the translation, and is actively working on new ways to ensure that bad translations like this happen as infrequently as possible.

You may want to avoid such appalling mistakes, Facebook.