Google has fixed the bug that translated Russia to 'Mordor' and Russians to 'occupiers'

11 months ago

Earlier this week, media outlets in Ukraine noticed something strange in their Google translations.

The online tool was translating “Russians” to “occupiers” and the “Russian Federation” to “Mordor”.

After being brought to its attention, Google says technicians have now fixed the bug, adding that the translations are automatic and works without the intervention of humans.

For those who aren’t aware, Mordor is the fictional region nicknamed ‘Land of Shadow’ – the dangerous part of Middle Earth that Frodo and Sam have to travel through in JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings books.

The glitch also saw the surname of Sergey Lavrov, the country’s foreign minister, translated to “sad little horse”.

“Google Translate is an automatic translator – it works without the intervention of human translators, using technology instead,” said Google in its statement.

“This means that not all translations are perfect, and there will sometimes be mistakes or mistranslations.

“We always work to correct these as quickly as possible when they are brought to our attention.”