CM Siddaramaiah Demands Meta Fix 'Dangerous' Translation Errors After Personal 'Death' Blunder

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah made a strong plea to Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, to act quickly to introduce correct translation facilities on its platforms. The plea from the chief minister comes after public outcry and personal anguish following grossly incorrect Kannada-to-English auto-translations, including one glaring error announcing his demise in a condolence message issued by his office.

The error, which had happened when a Kannada post condoling the death of veteran actress B. Sarojadevi was auto-translated to imply CM Siddaramaiah himself had died, brought to light a severe flaw in the auto-translation feature of Meta. The error had created shock waves, not only for the misinformation of official intention but for the larger impact on public perception and trust.

The Chief Minister's Call for Correctness

CM Siddaramaiah, through his media advisor, formally conveyed his concerns to Meta. He reiterated that social media sites, with their massive reach and impact, have an enormous responsibility to deliver accurate information, especially when it is about official government statements and public figures. The chief minister reiterated how such "negligence by tech giants can hurt the public image and trust."

The state government has asked Meta to temporarily disable its auto-translation facility for Kannada content until it is possible to achieve a consistent improvement in its accuracy. Apart from this, Meta has been asked to work closely with expert Kannada language experts and linguists. Such collaboration is found to be crucial to enhance the quality and contextual accuracy of Kannada-English and English-Kannada translations such that nuances and essential details are not lost or misinterpreted.

Bigger Picture and Global Precedent 

This is not an isolated case, with the same auto-translation mistakes claiming controversy elsewhere in the world, such as in Myanmar, Palestine, and Malaysia. The Karnataka Chief Minister's words are an indication of growing pressure on the technology sector to invest more in ethical language translating software, particularly for regional languages with huge user bases, to prevent the spread of misinformation and loss of public trust