Latest news with #SarojaDevi
Ammon
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Ammon
Meta apologizes after auto-translation mistakenly announces Indian state chief minister's death
Ammon News - Tech giant Meta has apologized and said it has fixed an auto-translation issue that led one of its social media platforms to mistakenly announce the death of Indian politician Siddaramaiah. 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.' CNN
Egypt Independent
5 days ago
- Egypt Independent
Meta apologizes after auto-translation mistakenly announces Indian state chief minister's death
CNN — Tech giant Meta has apologized and said it has fixed an auto-translation issue that led one of its social media platforms to mistakenly announce the death of Indian politician Siddaramaiah. 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.
NDTV
5 days ago
- Politics
- NDTV
"It Is Time Meta Establishes Responsible Translation System": Siddaramaiah
Raising concerns over automatic translation on Facebook, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah stated that poor translations have been a cause of miscommunication and public backlash, urging that the issue be taken seriously. "It is time Meta puts in place better and more responsible translation systems," the Karnataka CM posted on X. "Meta/Facebook has often previously faced similar issues globally for such auto-translation errors -- including in Myanmar (2018), Palestine (2017), and most recently in Malaysia (2024) -- where poor translations led to serious miscommunication and public backlash," he added. Siddaramaiah demanded that a responsible translation system be established for users on Facebook to avoid mistranslations of regional languages, including Kannada. "Facebook has been in operation for nearly two decades and has a vast user base in India, including a large number of Kannada-speaking users. Despite this, it is unfortunate that a sound and reliable translation system has not been put in place. We hope this concern is taken seriously," he added. His remarks come after Facebook's auto-translation feature mistranslated one of his posts on Facebook. "On July 15, I paid my respects to the mortal remains of the late B. Saroja Devi - a moment of deep personal and public sorrow. A post about this was shared in Kannada from the official Chief Minister of Karnataka Facebook page. Unfortunately, some people saw a wrong English translation of that post by default on their Facebook feed. The post was written only in Kannada. No English version was posted, and no auto-translation was added or requested from our side," Siddaramaiah informed. He said that Facebook doesn't provide avenues to content creators to manage the auto-translation feature for their posts. "Facebook's translation feature shows up on user feeds based on their settings, and content creators have no way to disable or control the auto-translation feature on viewers feed. In many cases, Facebook shows auto-translated versions of posts by default in user feeds. The original Kannada post remains unchanged and can be viewed by selecting 'See original' option," Siddaramaiah said. The Chief Minister added that his Media Advisor has also formally written to Meta regarding the situation. "My Media Advisor 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 & trust," he wrote. Meanwhile, a formal complaint has been sent by KV Prabhakar, Media Advisor to the Chief Minister, via email to Meta's India team. The letter noted that Kannada-to-English translations on Meta platforms are often "frequently inaccurate and, in some cases, grossly misleading." The email read, "We have noted with concern that the auto-translation from Kannada to English is 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 continued, "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." Subsequently, Prabhakar urged Meta to temporarily suspend the auto-translation feature for Kannada content, citing the sensitivity of public communication from constitutional functionaries, such as the Chief Minister. The letter reads, "Given the sensitivity of public communication, especially from a constitutional functionary like the Chief Minister, such misrepresentations due to flawed translation mechanisms are unacceptable. On behalf of the Chief Minister, we urge Meta to temporarily suspend the auto-translation feature for Kannada content until the translation accuracy is reliably improved and collaborate with qualified Kannada language experts and linguistic professionals to enhance the quality and contextual accuracy of translations between Kannada and English."
NDTV
6 days ago
- NDTV
Meta Apologises After Facebook's Auto-Translation Declared Siddaramaiah Dead
Bengaluru: Social media giant Meta has apologised after its automatic translation tool erroneously declared Chief Minister Siddaramaiah dead while translating a condolence message posted by the Karnataka CMO in Kannada on Facebook. On Tuesday, CM Siddaramaiah posted a condolence message in Kannada on Facebook and Instagram, condoling the death of Indian actress B. Saroja Devi. The Meta English translation of the message stated, "Chief Minister Siddaramaiah passed away yesterday multilingual star, senior actress B. Took darshan of Saroja Devi's earthly body and paid his last respects." Meta's AI-powered translation tools are used across Facebook and Instagram for translating public bios and content. The company acknowledged that its machine translation model had produced errors in Kannada translations on Facebook but claimed the issue has now been rectified, the CM's office said. The company's response came after CM Siddaramaiah, taking to social media on Thursday, posted, "Faulty auto-translation of Kannada content on Meta platforms is distorting facts and misleading users. This is especially dangerous when it comes to official communications." "In many cases, Facebook shows auto-translated versions of posts by default in user feeds. The original Kannada post remains unchanged and can be viewed by selecting, 'See original' option," he said in a post on X. Facebook's translation feature shows up on user feeds based on their settings, and content creators have no way to disable or control the auto-translation feature on viewers' feeds, Siddaramaiah said. CM Siddaramaiah further stated, "My Media Advisor K V Prabhakar 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 latest post by the Chief Minister's Office, referring to a report, stated, "Social media giant Meta issued an apology for the inaccurate translation of Kannada content on its platforms and stated that the technical issue had been resolved." (Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
News18
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- News18
'Stay Where You Are...': What Jayalalithaa Said To Saroja Devi
1/10 Veteran actress Saroja Devi passed away on Monday, July 14, at the age of 87 while undergoing treatment at Manipal Hospital in Bengaluru due to age-related illness. Her demise marks the end of an era in Indian cinema. (News18 Tamil) Saroja Devi acted in over 200 films across Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Hindi languages. She rose to fame early in her career, winning a National Award for her debut film. Her journey began in Tamil cinema with the 1956 film Thirumanaam. (News18 Tamil) 7/10 She would act with Sivaji Ganesan in the morning and M.G. Ramachandran in the evening. In total, she starred in 26 films with Ramachandran and 22 films with Sivaji, a rare feat in Indian cinema. (News18 Tamil)
