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posted by n1 on Tuesday October 31 2017, @11:39AM   Printer-friendly
from the choose-your-words-carefully dept.

Submitted via IRC for boru

The Israel Police mistakenly arrested a Palestinian worker [...] because they relied on automatic translation software to translate a post he wrote on his Facebook page. The Palestinian was arrested after writing "good morning," which was misinterpreted; no Arabic-speaking police officer read the post before the man's arrest.

[...] the man posted on his Facebook page a picture from the construction site where he works in the West Bank settlement of Beitar Ilit near Jerusalem. In the picture he is leaning against a bulldozer alongside the caption: "Good morning" in Arabic.

The automatic translation service offered by Facebook uses its own proprietary algorithms. It translated "good morning" as "attack them" in Hebrew and "hurt them" in English.

Arabic speakers explained that English transliteration used by Facebook is not an actual word in Arabic but could look like the verb "to hurt" – even though any Arabic speaker could clearly see the transliteration did not match the translation.

Source: Haaretz


Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 2) by inertnet on Tuesday October 31 2017, @02:08PM (5 children)

    by inertnet (4071) on Tuesday October 31 2017, @02:08PM (#590012) Journal

    For extra fun try to Google translate through 4 or 5 different languages and then back to your own.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 3, Funny) by KritonK on Tuesday October 31 2017, @02:39PM

    by KritonK (465) on Tuesday October 31 2017, @02:39PM (#590029)

    "If you want more, you can translate Google into 4 or 5 languages and then go back."

    I see what you mean...

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 31 2017, @08:17PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 31 2017, @08:17PM (#590186)

    For extra fun try to Google translate through 4 or 5 different languages and then back to your own.

    In some cases translating it into only one other language and then back to your own is enough.

  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 31 2017, @09:15PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 31 2017, @09:15PM (#590222)

    Or try to find the equilibrium between Japanese and English!

    http://www.translationparty.com/ [translationparty.com]