Translation blunder: Siddaramaiah 'killed' by Meta
A translation blunder from Meta’s automatic translation entirely changed the meaning of a post from the Karnataka Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) on Facebook.
A translation blunder from Meta’s automatic translation entirely changed the meaning of a post from the Karnataka Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) on Facebook.
The post, written in Kannada was originally posted to mourn the demise of veteran actor B Saroj Devi, was wrongly translated into English.
“Chief Minister Siddaramaiah passed away yesterday, a multilingual star, senior actress B. Took darshan of Sarojadevi’s earthly body and paid his last respects," the mistranslation read.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah took note of the faulty translation post and asked Meta to stop its Kannada auto-translation. “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. My media adviser, KV Prabhakar, has formally written to Meta urging immediate correction," Siddaramaiah wrote in a post on X.
Meta later changed it and corrected the error.
In a letter by his media adviser to Meta, Siddaramaiah asked Meta to work with Kannada language experts “to enhance the quality and contextual accuracy" of translations from Kannada to English. The Chief Minister also shared the letter written by his media adviser to Meta.. "We have noted with concern that the auto-translation from Kannada to English is frequently inaccurate and, in some cases, grossly misleading," it said.
This poses a significant risk, especially when public communications, official statements, or important messages from the Chief Minister are incorrectly translated... Many may not realise that what they are reading is an automated translation rather than the original message," the letter to Meta stated.
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