In a major faux pas, Meta's tool declared Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah ‘dead’ while translating a commemorative message posted by the official Facebook handle of the CM's office. The original post, mourning the death of actor B Saroja Devi, was written in the Kannada language. The post was translated in a faulty manner, paying tributes to the CM instead.
“Chief Minister Siddaramaiah passed away yesterday multilingual star, senior actress B. Took darshan of Sarojadevi's earthly body and paid his last respects," the erroneous translation read.
The issue has attracted ire from CM Siddaramaiah, who asked the platform to exercise caution and act responsibly. He also apprised that a formal complaint was lodged with Meta on the issue.
"Faulty auto-translation of Kannada content on @Metaplatforms is distorting facts & misleading users. This is especially dangerous when it comes to official communications. My Media Advisor Shri K V Prabhakar has formally written to Meta urging immediate correction," Siddaramaiah posted on X.
"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 & trust," he added.
Karnataka Chief Minister’s media advisor, KV Prabhakar, formally raised significant concerns with Meta on July 16 over the automatic translation of Kannada content on Facebook and Instagram. Representing the CM's office, Prabhakar urged the company to temporarily disable the auto-translation feature for Kannada until its accuracy was improved.
Meta issues apology
Meta took cognisance of the fault and issued an apology. The social media giant also said the issue of faulty translation was fixed.
"We fixed an issue that briefly caused this inaccurate Kannada translation. We apologize that this happened," PTI quoted a Meta spokesperson as saying.
