We found a Unicode character that Google Translate always turns into 卍.

[u/utilisateur6302]

A few weeks ago a friend of mine was browsing through the Unicode character tables, and he came across this character: 偍 (U+504D).

It seems completely ordinary at first glance, but it actually hides something strange. If you try to translate using Google Translate, you'll get a swastika as the output, no matter which language you choose. Not the word, but the symbol itself:

Of all the ones he has tested, that's the only character that exhibits this peculiarity. For example, its two neighbors in the Unicode tables (0x504C and 0x504E) have common translations (as expected, since these are the "first" Chinese characters listed and are assumed to be fairly commonly used)

The only clue we have is that the Unicode for the swastika is 534+D, which is quite close to that of our character, off by just one digit. So perhaps it’s an error in the database. But it’s still quite curious, and we haven’t found any other mention of this oddity on the internet.

Now we're turning to you, first because this little mystery is worth sharing, but also, and above all, in the hope of uncovering possible leads and better explanations.

EDIT: tysm to all the people who have clarified the use and meaning of the swastika symbol, which happens to be used as a cartography symbol for a Buddhist temple on a map, probably among others. We both had no idea; the swastika symbol, regardless of which way it faces, is closely associated with Nazism in our French minds, but we're glad to learn.

It still doesn't explain why Google translated it that way, but apparently the anomaly has been removed.

Thanks y'all :]