Microsoft’s search engine, Bing, has provoked an outcry after it automatically translated “Daesh”, the Arabic acronym for Isis, as “Saudi Arabia”.
The incident has led representatives of Saudi Arabia’s monarchy, as well as many members of the public, to demand a complete national boycott of the search engine.
Social media users first spotted the mistake, which soon went viral as people complained about the translation - with some describing it as an "insult".
A Microsoft spokesperson told The Independent: "Our product team fixed the error in the automated translation within hours of learning about it."
Dr Mamdouh Najjar, Vice President and National Technology Officer for Microsoft in Saudi Arabia, took to Twitter to apologise for the mistake.
“I apologise on behalf [of Microsoft] in person as an employee of the company, to the great Saudi people and this country dear to all our hearts for this unintended mistake.”
The error was due to Bing’s use of crowd sourced translations, Dr Najjar told the Huffington Post.
Alternative translations can take the top spot if they are put forward by more than 1,000 people.
