Twitter has launched versions of its site in ‘right-to-left’ languages for the first time, with Arabic, Farsi, Hebrew and Urdu.
According to Twitter’s engineers, mixing both right-to-left and left-to-right language presented a huge challenge.
Some tweets still needed to include left-to-right material to allow users to mention subject hashtags or other members’ account names written in other languages.
To address this it said its engineers had built new tools for the site to ensure the text and numbers would still look normal.
Twitter enlisted the help of 13,000 volunteers translate its menu options and support pages into the languages.
The move should help more people make use of the service, both to hold politicians to account and to tweet about their everyday life.
Twitter was blocked by authorities in Iran ahead of 2009’s presidential elections and in Egypt during the 2011 protests that led to the ousting of President Hosni Mubarak.
Twitter’s blog said the translation volunteers included a Saudi blogger, an IT professional in Iran, the co-founders of the grassroots #LetsTweetInArabic campaign and a BBC journalist.
“Some of these volunteers live in regions where Twitter is officially blocked,” it said. “Their efforts speak volumes about the lengths people will go to make Twitter accessible and understandable for their communities.”
Twitter is now available in 28 different languages around the world.
Read the official announcement from Twitter here.
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