‘Chief Minister Siddaramaiah passed away yesterday’: Zuckerberg’s Meta apologises after Kannada translation blunder
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "‘Chief Minister Siddaramaiah passed away yesterday’: Zuckerberg’s Meta apologises after Kannada translation blunder")
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah Photograph: (PTI)
Meta apologised to the Congress chief minister after complaints about the translation tool’s error. We fixed an issue that briefly caused this inaccurate Kannada translation. We apologize that this happened, said a spokesperson of the social media giant.
Social media giant Meta, run by Mark Zuckerberg, has apologised to Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah over a blunder by its autotranslation tool. The bizarre glitch put social media giant Meta in the dock after its autotranslation software mistranslated saying, “Chief Minister Siddaramaiah passed away yesterday,” when in fact the chief minister’s office had on Tuesday posted a condolence message on Facebook and Instagram in Kannada, mourning the death of veteran actress B Sarojadevi. The mistranslation shocked several users and caused confusion until the clarification came.
After complaints about the translation tool’s error, Meta has apologised to the Congress leader. “We fixed an issue that briefly caused this inaccurate Kannada translation. We apologize that this happened,” a Meta spokesperson told news agency PTI.
Meta’s English auto-translation read, “Chief Minister Siddaramaiah passed away yesterday multilingual star, senior actress B. Took darshan of Sarojadevi’s earthly body and paid his last respects.” None of it really made sense, showing the IT giant’s tech prowess in a bad light.
‘Faulty auto-translation distorting facts’
Furious over the mistake, Siddaramaiah decided to vent out his anger and posted on his X account, “Faulty autotranslation of Kannada content on Meta platforms is distorting facts and misleading users. This is especially dangerous when it comes to official communication.”
The chief minister emphasised that social media platforms need to act responsibly, particularly regarding official communications, and advised citizens about the frequent inaccuracies in platform translations.
On July 16, CM Siddaramaiah’s media adviser, K V Prabhakar, sent an email to Meta expressing serious concerns about the automatic translation of Kannada content on Facebook and Instagram.
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“My media adviser has formally written to Meta urging immediate correction. Social media platforms must act responsibly. I caution citizens to be aware that translations shown are often inaccurate. Such negligence by tech giants can harm public understanding and trust,” the CM said in a post on X.
Suspend auto-translation feature till accuracy improves: Govt tells Meta
The Karnataka government asked Meta to temporarily suspend the auto-translation feature for Kannada content until the system’s accuracy improves significantly. It also asked the platform to collaborate with qualified Kannada language experts and linguistic professionals to enhance the quality and contextual accuracy of translations between Kannada and English.
The Chief Minister’s Office also sought a response from Meta outlining the steps being taken to resolve the issue.
