Facebook translation error mistranslates Taiwan mayor's earthquake safety post
Facebook's automatic translation system mistranslated a Taiwanese mayor's earthquake safety post from Chinese into a message saying "Go die" instead of the intended "Wishing everyone safety," alarming the public before the post was quickly deleted.
What happened
On 21 August 2025, a magnitude 5.1 earthquake struck Jiayi County, Taiwan at 16:37, with maximum intensity 4 near Tainan City. Tainan City Mayor Huang Wei-zhe posted on Facebook: '地震！祝大家平安' (Earthquake! Wishing everyone safety).
Facebook's automatic translation system misidentified the post as Arabic text and translated it into Chinese as '去死！祝大家平安' (Go die! Wishing everyone safety). The mistranslation alarmed social media users who questioned whether the mayor's account had been compromised.
Reported impact
The mistranslated post scared many online users, with comments such as 'Was the mayor's account hacked?' and 'So shocked when I saw it'. Huang Wei-zhe quickly deleted the post, though screenshots circulated on other social media platforms.
Index analysis
The translation system incorrectly classified Chinese text as Arabic, triggering an erroneous automatic translation that produced harmful language completely contradictory to the original message's intent to reassure the public during a natural disaster.
Governance controls
Huang Wei-zhe stated he had contacted Meta Platforms to understand the cause of the error.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.