Micro-blogging social communication medium Twitter has rolled out versions of its site in Arabic,Farsi, Hebrew and Urdu , all right-to-left languages for the first time. According to the BBC, Twitter use the help of 13,000 volunteers to translate its menu options and support pages into these four languages.
Experts said the move should help more "ordinary people" make use of the service, both to hold politicians to account and to tweet about their everyday life. Twitter's blog said the translation volunteers included a Saudi blogger, an IT professional in Iran, the co-founders of the grassroots #LetsTweetIn Arabic 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," it added. Twitter said that integrating the use of right-to-left content had posed it a "unique" challenge.
The firm said it was now available in 28 languages and would announce an appeal for people to help further increase that number at an unspecified date.
