Meta apologizes after auto-translation mistakenly announces Indian state chief minister's death
The chief minister of the southwestern Indian state of Karnataka posted on Instagram Tuesday in the local Kannada language, saying he was paying his respects to the late Indian actress B. Saroja Devi. He also paid tribute to the actress on Facebook and X.
However, Meta's auto-translation tool inaccurately translated the Instagram post to suggest that Siddaramaiah, who uses just one name, was the one who 'passed away.'
'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, garbled translation read, CNN affiliate News 18 reported.
A Meta spokesperson told news agency Press Trust of India Thursday: 'We fixed an issue that briefly caused this inaccurate Kannada translation. We apologize that this happened.'
Politician calls for use of 'grossly misleading' tool to be halted
Also on Thursday, Siddaramaiah criticized the auto-translation tool as 'dangerous' in posts on Facebook and X, adding that such 'negligence' from tech giants 'can harm public understanding & trust.'
His posts included a photo of an email his office sent to Meta (META) voicing 'a serious concern' about the auto-translation tool on its platforms, 'particularly Facebook and Instagram.'
The email, which had the subject line 'Urgent Request to Address Faulty Auto-Translation of Kannada Content on Meta Platforms,' urged the tech company to 'temporarily suspend' its auto-translation tool for content written in Kannada 'until the translation accuracy is reliably improved.'
His office also requested that Meta work with Kannada language experts to improve the feature.
Kannada is the official language of Karnataka and is also spoken in bordering Indian states. Some 45 million people spoke Kannada as their first language in the early 2010s, and another 15 million spoke it as their second language, based on the latest available data.
The email from Siddaramaiah's office calls Meta's auto-translation from Kannada to English 'frequently inaccurate and, in some cases, grossly misleading.'
'This poses a significant risk, especially when public communications, official statements, or important messages from the Chief Minister and the Government are incorrectly translated. It can lead to misinterpretation among users, many of whom may not realise that what they are reading is an automated and faulty translation rather than the original message,' it continues.
'Given the sensitivity of public communication, especially from a constitutional functionary like the Chief Minister, such misrepresentations due to flawed translation mechanisms are unacceptable,' it adds.
As of Friday, the auto-translation of Siddaramaiah's Instagram post reads: 'The multilingual star, senior actress B Sarojadevi who passed away yesterday, paid his last respects,' which still appears to be inaccurate.
CNN has reached out to Meta and the Karnataka chief minister's office for further comment.
The incident comes months after the US tech giant apologized for a technical error that led some Instagram users to see graphic, violent videos.
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