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Facebook switched to Kyiv spelling

After about one year of writing, calling, lobbying, the world’s biggest social community Facebook and, according to Alexa’s rankings, the world’s second popular web site, finally corrected the spelling of Kyiv. They no longer display it as Kіev.

Unlike in the case with Twitter, the change was not that swift, but Facebook is much bigger, so one had to adjust for the company bureaucracy.

In any case, although they still show it as “Kіev, Ukraine” in the drop down input box:

kiev - kyyiv

How to choose Kyiv in Facebook {click on the image to zoom in}

Once the settings are saved, the name is written properly, Kyiv of course:

Kyiv@Facebook!

How Kyiv is displayed on people's profiles

Thank you every one who supported this initiative. Of course we are not stopping lobbying Kyiv’s spelling and will persevere further, now, with world’s major publishers.

Please join in!

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Posted in Call for action, Companies, Letters. Tagged with .

4 Responses

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  1. Mark: this is great work. We need to do some work in Ukraine itself as well. Virtually all of the ISPs, home pages, and internet addresses still use Russian transliterations – although the domain “controllers” permit the use of the correct translits – ie: xxxx.kiev.ua is almost always used, rather than xxxx.kyiv.ua, and lvov, ivanofrankovsk is still used, etc.

    The MInistry of Transport, especially at airports, in its announcements, both verbal and on announcement boards (TV screens) still uses incorrect spellings. And it has not applied to international transport agencies to change the international transport spellings of Ukrainian place names – that is not a decision made by the international agencies, but a decision of the host country.

    Let’s keep hammering…

  2. Marko said

    Myron, you can read more on kyiv.ua on this forum:
    http://vplyv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=70

    There is a project up in Verkhovna Rada but it may take some time. So much about Internet. Shame, they did not do it properly at the very beginning.

    Generally, Ukrainians do use proper spellings, which are Lviv, Kyiv, etc… who is lagging behind, is certain.ly the Western press.

    The Economist is completely ignoring the request of Ukrainian people and its officials. Indeed, a bit of hammering will do them good: http://vplyv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=148&p=261

  3. Люба said

    Даваймо!!

  4. Marko said

    Один австріяк, Ульф Валман, колись рогом вперся. Проте місяць тому, сам добровільно прийшов і все поміняв:

    Ulf Wallmann змінив назву групи “Kiev Nightlife” на “Kyiv Nightlife” – Щоб переглянути групу, перейдіть за посиланням нижче: http://www.facebook.com/n/?group.php&gid=8966497513&mid=1180ae0G45cd5f51G70575dG40 – Дякуємо, Команда Facebook

    Потрібно всім просто регулярно нагадувати, це до критичної мас – далі піде.