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There has been widespread unrest and turmoil all over Iran, since the alleged botched results of the Presidential elections came out. There has been a ban on reporting for the international media and Iranian authorities have been quick to block access to various social networking websites such as Twitter and Facebook. Still, many people are using proxy servers and other methods to make sure that the news reaches to the the world via such online mediums, one way or another.
Since the onset of the Iranian unrest, Facebook has been overwhelmed with the influx of numerous posts, pages and newly created groups. So is the pressure on Google to translate millions of pages written in Farsi. Considering the gravity of these events. Google and Facebook announced that they have included Farsi in their language databases.
Via its official blog page, Facebook stated it has indeed included Farsi into its language capabilities and it will be available from tonight onwards. According to the statement, the Persian language version of Facebook was already developed, but Facebook felt the need to launch it in the midst of the Iranian crisis, to facilitate communication between concerned nationals and the outside world. Even with the launch of the Persian version, it should be noted that, translation is in its infancy and would take time to be perfected.
To enable viewing of Farsi pages in Facebook, the user’s browser should be set to Farsi. This would automatically display Facebook’s Farsi version. Facebook has stated that over 400 Persian speaking individuals have already voluntarily submitted numerous translations for the Farsi version.
Google also announced via its official blog the addition of Farsi in Google Translate, considering the events taking place in Iran. As the translation isn’t perfect in the translated pages, hence, Google is inviting users to submit translations by clicking on the ‘contribute a better translation’ on the translated pages.
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