Meta has issued an apology following a translation error on its platforms that mistakenly stated Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had died.
The incident occurred on Tuesday after Siddaramaiah posted a condolence message in Kannada on Facebook and Instagram, mourning the passing of veteran actress B. Saroja Devi. However, the platforms’ auto-translation feature incorrectly rendered the post in English, implying that Siddaramaiah himself had “passed away.”
According to the Press Trust of India (PTI), the mistranslation stemmed from the automated system misinterpreting the original Kannada message, which was intended as a tribute to the late actress.
By Thursday, Meta acknowledged the error and confirmed it had been corrected. “We fixed an issue that briefly caused this inaccurate Kannada translation,” a company spokesperson told PTI. “We apologise that this happened.”
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah publicly criticised Meta’s translation tools, particularly for Kannada, accusing the company of “distorting facts” and spreading misinformation. He warned that such inaccuracies could be harmful, especially in the context of official communication.
His media advisor, K.V. Prabhakar, formally wrote to Meta on Thursday, urging the company to temporarily suspend the Kannada auto-translation feature until its reliability is improved. He also called for collaboration with Kannada language experts to ensure accuracy moving forward.
A BBC review of the post’s English translation on Friday showed it still contained errors, reading: “The multilingual star, senior actress B Sarojadevi who passed away yesterday, paid his last respects.”
Meta has not stated whether it will suspend Kannada translations, but the company continues to face pressure to enhance its language tools, particularly for regional and non-Latin scripts.
