Bing under fire after it translates ‘Daesh’ as ‘Saudi Arabia’

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PakistanToday
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Saudi Arabia’s monarchy was left fuming after Microsoft’s Bing search engine translated ‘Daesh’ – the Arabic acronym for Islamic State – as ‘Saudi Arabia.’ Many have called for a boycott of the search engine.

While no one fully expects online translation tools to be perfect, it is at least expected that they won’t falsely identify countries as being synonymous with terrorist groups that commit gruesome atrocities.

However, that’s exactly what Bing did over the weekend, in an incident that has infuriated Riyadh. Representatives of Saudi Arabia’s monarchy called for a boycott of the search engine, along with many citizens.

Some took to social media to express their outrage.

“The Saudi people in one voice: Bing has been boycotted,” said one tweet.

Another Twitter user posted a clip of the translation on Bing’s website, calling it an “insult” and urging a boycott of the search engine.

Meanwhile, a Microsoft spokesperson told Sputnik that the issue is under investigation, adding that “our product team fixed the error in the automated translation within hours of learning about it.”

The search engine’s blunder follows accusations that Saudi Arabia supports multiple terrorist groups.

This is not the first time a tech giant has made such a blunder. A few weeks ago, Google showed major parts of Pakistan as Indian territory. The Indian version of the service shows Azad Kashmir as part of Indian-occupied Kashmir. It also places parts of China’s Hotan County under Indian control.

Google also caused outrage when its Google maps service erased Palestine off the world map. Thousands signed a petition urging Google to reinstate Palestine on the maps.

Courtesy: RT

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