Social media giant Meta issued a formal apology on Thursday after a serious auto-translation error on its platforms, Facebook and Instagram, falsely implied that Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had passed away.
The translation glitch occurred when the Chief Minister shared a condolence message in Kannada mourning someone else’s demise. However, the auto-translation into English misconstrued the message, suggesting that Siddaramaiah himself had died, triggering widespread confusion and concern across platforms.
Calling out Meta, Siddaramaiah publicly flagged the incident, writing on X (formerly Twitter):
“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.”
The Chief Minister expressed deep concern, stating that such translation errors on official platforms could seriously mislead the public and damage credibility, especially in a multilingual country like India where language accuracy is critical.
In response, a Meta spokesperson told PTI:
“We fixed an issue that briefly caused this inaccurate Kannada translation. We apologize that this happened.”
The company said the problem was brief and had since been resolved. However, the damage had already been done, with screenshots of the incorrect translation going viral before the clarification was issued.
