Yandex Translate Accidentally Includes Derogatory Putin Examples

Yandex Translate not only offers a direct translation of the text you enter, but also a number of examples of your phrase in use – with modifications based on context and situation.

However, this service – like all things – can’t be monitored 24/7 and sometimes things fall through the net… As highlighted by Twitter user Кирилл Седов (Kirill Sedov) who screenshotted and informed Yandex that they are “walking on thin ice“.

Screenshot from Kirill’s original Tweet on Twitter.

Yandex did respond, saying they would pass the information on to be review (and presumably removed as soon as possible).

Translate typically takes examples from books and films as examples, and in the case of Vladimir Putin they included examples for:

  • “Even Vladimir Putin draws only 98% of the votes” (TV series Lovers);
  • “Vladimir Putin wanted to kill you?” (TV series “The End of the Game”);
  • “Hey, Vladimir Putin can come here, take off his shirt” (the film “Man is a wolf to man”);
  • “Vladimir Putin is the indisputable master of Russia” (TV series “Putin, Russia and the West”);
  • “Suddenly, I live with Vladimir Putin” (TV series “Love Me”).

At the time of writing, the Yandex Translation team have been proactive and removed the derogatory examples.

 

Dan Taylor
Dan Taylor is an experienced SEO consultant and has worked with brands and companies on optimizing for Russia (and Yandex) for a number of years. Winner of the inaugural 2018 TechSEO Boost competition, webmaster at HreflangChecker.com and Sloth.Cloud, and founder of RussianSearchNews.com.