Microsoft Apologizes for Bing Translating ‘Daesh’ to ‘Saudi Arabia’

A photo posted on internet on April 7, 2015 shows ISIS or Daesh (Daech) or "Islamic State"
AP File Photo: Balkis Press/Sipa USA
Charlie Nash

Microsoft’s Saudi Arabian Vice President has issued an apology after the translation tool for its search engine, Bing, translated “Daesh” into “Saudi Arabia”.

Daesh is an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State, also known as ISIS.

“As an employee of [Microsoft], I apologise personally to the great Saudi people and this country, dear to all our hearts, for this unintentional mistake,” said Microsoft’s Vice President for Saudi Arabia, Dr. Mamdouh Najjar.

The error prompted huge backlash among Saudi Arabian citizens, who have attempted to start a boycott against the company.

“Shame on you,” posted one account, tagging Bing, along with a video showing the wrong translation.

Another account argued that if people were going to change the meaning of Daesh to Saudi Arabia, they would change the name of America to “The Hell of America”.

Dr. Najjar stated that the error was likely due to Bing’s “crowdsourced translations,” which allow the public to make contributions to their translation databases.

Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington or like his page at Facebook.

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