Why is WeChat translating the Canadian flag emoji into “He’s in prison”?

Emoji transcend languages, so they usually don’t require translation. But WeChat will do it for you anyway if you’re typing in Chinese, with some pretty bizarre results. 

Tencent’s popular messaging app comes with a built-in translator. So you can tap on any Chinese messages to get an instantaneous English translation. Most of the time it works fine, but it’s different when you throw emoji into the mix.

While emoji by themselves don’t translate into anything, when they’re accompanied by a Chinese message, some emoji appear to be associated with specific words or phrases.

Flag emoji give some especially strange results: 

• Flag of Canada 🇨🇦: He’s in prison
• Flag of Bosnia & Herzegovina 🇧🇦: He’s in a coma
• Flag of Afghanistan 🇦🇫: In the middle of nowhere
• Flag of Indonesia 🇮🇩: I’m so sorry
• Flag of Thailand 🇹🇭: Oh, no

Some flag emoji bring up seemingly random names: