Manama: Mixed reaction among Saudi social media users after US tech company Microsoft apologised over its Bing translation of the name “Daesh” in Arabic as “Saudi Arabia” in English.
While some users accepted the apology, others said it was not enough and wanted the authorities to push for legal action against the US tech company for the blatant mistranslation, calling for a boycott of all Microsoft products.
The company offered the apology after several Saudi social media users noticed the translation blunder and expressed anger and shamed the company.
Daesh is the acronym in Arabic for the self-styled terror group Islamic State for Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Saudis and other Muslims have refused the ISIS acronym, arguing that the group was neither Islamic nor a state.
Saudis, offended by the mistranslation, called for an immediate boycott of the company, with many arguing that their country was being "targeted by evil forces determined to equate it with terrorism."
However, Mamdouh Najjar, Microsoft's vice president for Saudi Arabia, said on his Twitter account that the incident was an "unintentional mistake".
"As an employee of [Microsoft], I apologise personally to the great Saudi people and this beloved country, dear to all our hearts, for this unintentional mistake," he said.
Najjar reportedly told the Huffington Post that the mistake "was most likely a result of Bing's crowdsourced translations, which promotes alternative translations after it receives a suggestion from 1,000 users."
His apology was hailed as a positive step forward, although some Saudis were not convinced. One user said that the whole world would have been turned upside down if another country was at the core of the highly controversial mistranslation.
