Meta apologises for wrong translation that declared Indian chief minister dead
The error took place on Tuesday, when the chief minister's Facebook account published a tribute to veteran Kannada actress B Saroja Devi.
Meta's automatic Kannada-to-English translation system rendered the post as saying: 'Chief Minister Siddaramaiah passed away yesterday multilingual star, senior actress B Took darshan of Sarojadevi's earthly body and paid his last respects,' according to a Times of India report.
Kannada is Karnataka state's official language and one of India's 22 constitutionally recognised languages.
The mistake was flagged on Wednesday by Siddaramaiah's team, noting the 'frequently inaccurate' and 'grossly misleading' translations.
In a formal letter sent to Meta by KV Prabhakar, media advisor to the chief minister, he called for a temporary suspension of automatic Kannada translations until the accuracy is improved and for the technology giant to work with 'qualified Kannada language experts and linguistic professionals' to do so.
'Given the sensitivity of public communication, especially from a constitutional functionary like the Chief Minister, such misrepresentations due to flawed translation mechanisms are unacceptable,' the letter added.
Siddaramaiah posted the letter on his X account, writing: 'Faulty auto-translation of Kannada content on Meta platforms is distorting facts & misleading users. This is especially dangerous when it comes to official communications.
'Social media platforms must act responsibly. I caution citizens to be aware that translations shown are often inaccurate. Such negligence by tech giants can harm public understanding & trust.'
Meta responded by apologising and attributing the issue to a technical fault in its machine translation system.
'We fixed an issue that briefly caused this inaccurate Kannada translation. We apologise that this happened,' a company spokesperson told the Press Trust of India.
The translation appears to have been fixed and now reads: 'Multilingual star, senior actress B Sarojadevi passed away yesterday in Bangalore. I took the darshan of Saroja Devi's earthly body and paid his last respects.
'B Sarojadevi is a great actress. A wonderful actress who played roles in Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Hindi languages as a five language star.'
On Instagram however, also owned by Meta, the translation still appears flawed. At the time of writing, it read: 'The multilingual star, senior actress B Sarojadevi who passed away yesterday, paid his last respects.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
26 minutes ago
- The Independent
Trump claims he's made a ‘massive' trade deal with Japan
President Donald Trump boasted Tuesday that he had made a 'massive' deal with Japan that would generate 'thousands of jobs' and billions of dollars for the U.S. The president announced the trade framework – 'perhaps the largest Deal ever made' – in a Truth Social post Tuesday, revealing that a 15 percent tax on goods imported from Japan had been agreed. In the post Trump said Japan would invest 'at my direction' $550 billion into the U.S. and would 'open' its economy to American-made vehicles as well as 'rice' and 'other things.' But further details remained scant. The 15 percent tax on imported Japanese goods is a significant drop from the 25 percent rate that Trump, in a recent letter to Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, said would be levied starting on August 1. 'This Deal will create Hundreds of Thousands of Jobs — There has never been anything like it,' the president posted on Truth Social, adding that the United States 'will continue to always have a great relationship with the Country of Japan.' 'This is a very exciting time for the United States of America, and especially for the fact that we will continue to always have a great relationship with the Country of Japan. Thank you for your attention to this matter!' Early Wednesday in Tokyo, Japanese Prime Minister Shigera Ishiba confirmed the new trade agreement, saying it would benefit both sides and help them work together. 'The government was determined to protect national interests,' Ishiba told reporters, per the Wall Street Journal. Trump's announcement appeared to excite investors, with the benchmark Nikkei – the Tokyo stock market – climbing 2.6 percent to its highest in a year, with shares of automakers also surging. Toyota grew by more than 11 percent, with Honda and Nissan both up more than 8 percent. But American automakers were less buoyed with the deal, with concerns raised over low import levies from Japan, compared to tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico remaining at 25 percent. Matt Blunt, head of the American Automotive Policy Council, said, "Any deal that charges a lower tariff for Japanese imports with virtually no U.S. content than the tariff imposed on North American-built vehicles with high U.S. content is a bad deal for U.S. industry and U.S. auto workers.'
Reuters
27 minutes ago
- Reuters
Japan's Nikkei surges to one-year peak, bonds slide on US trade deal
TOKYO, July 23 (Reuters) - Japanese automakers led a surge in the Nikkei share average to a one-year peak on Wednesday, while bonds slid after Tokyo reached a trade deal with Washington, ending a months-long stalemate. The Nikkei (.N225), opens new tab rallied as much as 3.3% to 41,070.91, its highest since July last year. The Tokyo Stock Exchange's transport equipment index (.ITEQP.T), opens new tab soared 10.3%, with Toyota Motor (7203.T), opens new tab surging more than 13%. The trade deal reduced economic uncertainty, bolstering the case for the Bank of Japan to resume raising interest rates. Traders sold Japanese government bonds, pushing two-year yields up by 7 basis points (bps) to 0.82%, the highest since April 2, when U.S. President Donald Trump shocked markets with his aggressive "Liberation Day" tariff announcement. Markets largely shrugged off a media report that Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba would step down by the end of August. Ishiba is facing growing opposition from within his Liberal Democratic Party for his vow to stay in power despite the ruling coalition's defeat in Sunday's upper house election. The yen was last down about 0.2% at 146.96 per dollar . Trump said on Tuesday the U.S. and Japan had struck a trade deal that includes a 15% tariff that will be levied on U.S. imports from the Asian country, down from a threatened tariff of 25%. Industry and government officials briefed on the agreement said the deal also lowers the tariff to 15% from 25% on Japanese autos, which account for more than a quarter of the country's exports to the U.S. "It is commendable that the 25% baseline tariff was avoided," said Norihiro Yamaguchi, senior Japan economist at Oxford Economics in Tokyo. "Lowered uncertainty will be welcomed in the equity market." Bank shares gained, sending the TSE's banking index (.IBNKS.T), opens new tab up 4.5%. The 10-year JGB yield jumped 9.5 bps to 1.595%, matching last week's 17-year high. Ten-year Japanese government bond futures tumbled as much as 1.04 yen to 137.56 yen, their lowest since March 28. Deputy BOJ Governor Shinichi Uchida said the central bank needs to focus on downside risks to the economy. His comments came ahead of a BOJ policy meeting next Wednesday and Thursday. "I don't think this (trade deal) alone will lead to a Bank of Japan rate hike next week, but the possibility of a rate hike between September and October has increased," said SMBC chief currency strategist Hirofumi Suzuki. "This will create pressure to buy the yen."
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Total recall? Campaigners employ quirk of Taiwan's political system to turn on ‘pro-China' candidates
On a steamy night deep in one of Taipei's most conservative suburbs, a group of elderly neighbours are yelling at each other next to a garbage truck. They have just been handed a leaflet by a university student calling on them to recall – expel – their sitting legislator. There are hundreds of these campaigners across Taiwan, targeting members of the Kuomintang (KMT) opposition who they accuse of being too pro-China. But this neighbourhood is deeply loyal to the party, and the campaigners are not welcome. A woman shouts angrily: 'Throw that leaflet away! … We are against the recall!' The group of activists are pushing to overturn the balance of power in Taiwan's government, just 18 months after the national election. They are using an extraordinary mechanism that allows civilians to vacate individual seats midterm, in a way it has never been used before. The campaign's success has taken everyone by surprise. More than 30 of Taiwan's 113 legislators are facing recall – the highest number in Taiwan's history. All of them come from the opposition KMT party. The campaign has set off a political storm across Taiwan, with arrests, assaults, and accusations of authoritarianism and collaboration, fuelling the island's already deep political divisions. The first 24 recall votes will take place on Saturday, and another seven in August, at a cost equivalent to about £40m. If just six are expelled the party will lose its majority in parliament to the ruling Democratic Progressive party (DPP). Both sides say they are fighting for Taiwan's democracy. In the 2024 election Lai Ching-te and the DPP won the presidency but not the legislature, where the KMT and smaller Taiwan People's party hold the majority. The two have spent much of the past year blocking bills and stalling constitutional court appointments, sparking brawls indside the legislature and mass protests outside, from where the recall movement was born. The campaigners calling for the KMT recall are a collection of civic groups who have won the backing of the ruling DPP. What started as a protest against opposition obstructionism has become about the existential threat of China, where the ruling Communist party (CCP) plans to annex Taiwan. Campaigners claim the targeted legislators are too close to China and are undermining Taiwan's national security, pointing to those who have visited Beijing and met with senior officials, and a raft of proposed China-related bills that they say will weaken Taiwan's defences. 'Certainly a good number of these legislators have stated on the record their support for pro-Beijing policy, or at the least strong anti-DPP policy,' says Lev Nachman, a political science professor at National Taiwan University. 'There's a difference between anti-DPP and pro-Beijing, but from the recallers' perspective these have become synonymous.' The KMT denies the accusations against its MPs. The party officially opposes annexation by the CCP but argues the way to preserve peace is through friendlier ties with Beijing. Fu Kun-chi, a controversial senior KMT legislator up for recall, told Nikkei Asia it was in the spirit of 'fostering mutual understanding' that he went to Beijing and met with Wang Huning, Xi Jinping's chief adviser overseeing Taiwan relations. Critics said Fu was 'selling out Taiwan'. The KMT and its supporters see the recalls as a grab for power by people who can't accept the legitimate election results. They are misusing Taiwan's democratic processes to 'suppress opposition voices', a senior KMT official told a recent background briefing. The recall mechanism is a drawn-out process that first requires two rounds of signature collections in an electorate: 1% of voting residents and then a separate 10%. Once approved by electoral officials a date is set for the recall vote. At least 25% of voters must turn out, and a majority must agree to vacate the seat. If successful, a byelection with new candidates is held within three months, and the recalled legislator is banned from running again for seven years. Thousands of campaigners have swarmed street corners, transit stations, and the designated garbage collection points where residents bring their trash to trucks each night – first chasing signatures and now lobbying for votes. The campaign battle between the two sides has been hostile, scandal-filled, and very public. Retaliatory petitions against DPP seats by the KMT failed spectacularly. None were approved, and dozens of officials were arrested on accusations of faking signatures and using the names of dead residents to fill petitions. In April the KMT party chief, Eric Chu, called Lai a 'dictator' who is 'more communist than the communists, more fascist than the fascists'. A KMT spokesman told the Guardian Chu's comments were 'a sharp critique of what he sees as the DPP's growing authoritarian tendencies'. In June Lai drew criticism of his own after he appeared to refer to opposition forces as 'impurities' that needed to be 'driven out', in one of a planned 10 speeches designed to 'unify the nation'. The Presidential office said the comments were taken out of context and his speech was 'about using democracy to temper the power of national unity'. That same month Robert Tsao, a tech tycoon supporting the recall campaign, told Nikkei Asia that he wanted to 'burn' down the entire KMT party, which he called a 'Trojan horse' for Beijing. On the ground, campaign workers have been doxed and assaulted in the streets – those working in Dazhi wore body cameras and were accompanied by a well-built volunteer as their security guard. The cities and towns are plastered with billboards, while trucks loaded with LCD screens drive laps of the streets blaring accusations of treason and collaboration. Tens of thousands of people have protested for and against the recall around Taiwan. 'These people were elected, and you're wasting resources to try and turn them out,' said Patrick at a pro-opposition rally. 'We need to keep the country running smoothly instead of constantly wasting money.' In Dazhi, resident Sarah Li says pro-China legislators have to go. She says they are blinded by favourable treatment from Beijing and supporters – like most of her neighbours – are ignoring the current climate to stay loyal to their party. 'They don't care about people's lives,' she says of the legislators. 'They just want power, political power.' It's illegal to discuss polling this close to the vote, but observers, like Taiwan-based political commentator Courtney Donovan Smith, say that people in support of the recall are far more likely to actually go and vote. 'There's more people against these recalls, but they're not all that motivated,' he says. Beijing is likely watching the chaos with some glee. Fomenting social division is a key part of its strategy, and right now local politics is doing the CCP's job. Much of the saga has made its way into CCP propaganda seeking to undermine Taiwan's government with state media reporting the campaign as 'extremist' activity to 'remove opposition voices'. At a press briefing on Friday, Taiwan's vice-president, Hsiao Bi-Khim, said the recalls were a constitutional civic right just like elections, and a sign of Taiwan's 'robust' democracy. 'I think it's pretty obvious that China has been very proactive in trying to utilise hybrid means of disrupting our social cohesion: disinformation, infiltration, United Front tactics, et cetera. And that is why we also feel strongly that we need to step up to better defend and protect our society, and at the same time build greater unity,' she said. Asked about international concerns over the fighting, she said it was a challenge, but: 'Is there any democracy that doesn't have deep political divisions?' No analyst or politician the Guardian spoke to for this story dared to predict an outcome. Nachman says he has never seen Taiwan more divided. 'That wound needs to be addressed, regardless of who wins in the end.' Additional research by Jason Tzu Kuan Lu and Lillian Yang
