Meta issues apology after auto translation error falsely announces death of Indian Chief Minister

Saturday, July 19, 2025 - Meta has issued an apology and fixed a translation error that falsely announced the death of Siddaramaiah, the Chief Minister of Karnataka, India.

Siddaramaiah had posted on Instagram in Kannada, the official language of Karnataka, to pay tribute to the late Indian actress B. Saroja Devi. He shared similar tributes on Facebook and X. However, Meta’s auto-translation tool mistakenly translated his post to suggest that Siddaramaiah himself had passed away.

According to CNN affiliate News 18, the flawed translation read: “Chief Minister Siddaramaiah passed away yesterday multilingual star, senior actress B. Took darshan of Sarojadevi’s earthly body and paid his last respects.”

In response, a Meta spokesperson said, “We fixed an issue that briefly caused this inaccurate Kannada translation. We apologize that this happened.”

Siddaramaiah later condemned the tool in posts on Facebook and X, calling it “dangerous” and warning that such negligence from tech companies could damage public trust. He shared a photo of a formal email his office sent to Meta, raising “serious concern” about the tool’s performance, especially on Facebook and Instagram.

Titled “Urgent Request to Address Faulty Auto-Translation of Kannada Content on Meta Platforms,” the email urged Meta to temporarily suspend its auto-translation feature for Kannada until its accuracy improves. It also called on the company to collaborate with Kannada language experts to enhance translation quality.

The email described Meta’s Kannada-to-English translations as “frequently inaccurate and, in some cases, grossly misleading,” warning that mistranslations of public or official communications could cause widespread confusion.

It further noted that inaccurate translations from a constitutional office like the Chief Minister's could result in unacceptable misrepresentations.

As of Friday, Meta’s updated translation of the Instagram post still appeared to be incorrect, stating: “The multilingual star, senior actress B Sarojadevi who passed away yesterday, paid his last respects.”

This incident follows a previous Meta-related controversy, where the company apologized for a glitch that showed violent content to some Instagram users.