Authorities recently arrested a Palestinian man after his post on Facebook reading “good morning” was improperly translated into “attack them” and “hurt them,” according to multiple reports.
Although no authorities involved in the arrest were fluent in Arabic, and thus didn’t verify the translation, Israeli police apprehended the man after being notified of the post, reports The Guardian. The Palestinian’s virtual greeting accompanied a picture of him with a bulldozer, since he’s a construction worker. That imagery may have stoked paranoia among law enforcement because they misinterpreted the message. They eventually released the man, who was detained for roughly a few hours, once law enforcement realized the mistake.
The social media platform has a translation option, but Arabic is sometimes too complex for the system. Machine translation often uses artificial intelligence that is constantly being developed. (RELATED: Facebook Official Travels To Pakistan After Man Sentenced To Death For Posting ‘Blasphemous’ Content)
Facebook did not respond to The Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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