Latest news with #Kannada-to-English
NDTV
2 days ago
- Politics
- NDTV
"It Is Time Meta Establishes Responsible Translation System": Siddaramaiah
Raising concerns over automatic translation on Facebook, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah stated that poor translations have been a cause of miscommunication and public backlash, urging that the issue be taken seriously. "It is time Meta puts in place better and more responsible translation systems," the Karnataka CM posted on X. "Meta/Facebook has often previously faced similar issues globally for such auto-translation errors -- including in Myanmar (2018), Palestine (2017), and most recently in Malaysia (2024) -- where poor translations led to serious miscommunication and public backlash," he added. Siddaramaiah demanded that a responsible translation system be established for users on Facebook to avoid mistranslations of regional languages, including Kannada. "Facebook has been in operation for nearly two decades and has a vast user base in India, including a large number of Kannada-speaking users. Despite this, it is unfortunate that a sound and reliable translation system has not been put in place. We hope this concern is taken seriously," he added. His remarks come after Facebook's auto-translation feature mistranslated one of his posts on Facebook. "On July 15, I paid my respects to the mortal remains of the late B. Saroja Devi - a moment of deep personal and public sorrow. A post about this was shared in Kannada from the official Chief Minister of Karnataka Facebook page. Unfortunately, some people saw a wrong English translation of that post by default on their Facebook feed. The post was written only in Kannada. No English version was posted, and no auto-translation was added or requested from our side," Siddaramaiah informed. He said that Facebook doesn't provide avenues to content creators to manage the auto-translation feature for their posts. "Facebook's translation feature shows up on user feeds based on their settings, and content creators have no way to disable or control the auto-translation feature on viewers feed. In many cases, Facebook shows auto-translated versions of posts by default in user feeds. The original Kannada post remains unchanged and can be viewed by selecting 'See original' option," Siddaramaiah said. The Chief Minister added that his Media Advisor has also formally written to Meta regarding the situation. "My Media Advisor has formally written to Meta urging immediate correction. 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," he wrote. Meanwhile, a formal complaint has been sent by KV Prabhakar, Media Advisor to the Chief Minister, via email to Meta's India team. The letter noted that Kannada-to-English translations on Meta platforms are often "frequently inaccurate and, in some cases, grossly misleading." The email read, "We have noted with concern that the auto-translation from Kannada to English is frequently inaccurate and, in some cases, grossly misleading. This poses a significant risk, especially when public communications, official statements, or important messages from the Chief Minister and the Government are incorrectly translated." It continued, "It can lead to misinterpretation among users, many of whom may not realise that what they are reading is an automated and faulty translation rather than the original message." Subsequently, Prabhakar urged Meta to temporarily suspend the auto-translation feature for Kannada content, citing the sensitivity of public communication from constitutional functionaries, such as the Chief Minister. The letter reads, "Given the sensitivity of public communication, especially from a constitutional functionary like the Chief Minister, such misrepresentations due to flawed translation mechanisms are unacceptable. On behalf of the Chief Minister, we urge Meta to temporarily suspend the auto-translation feature for Kannada content until the translation accuracy is reliably improved and collaborate with qualified Kannada language experts and linguistic professionals to enhance the quality and contextual accuracy of translations between Kannada and English."
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Meta apologises for wrong translation that declared Indian chief minister dead
Meta has apologised after a translation error on Facebook incorrectly suggested that Siddaramaiah, chief minister of the southern Indian state of Karnataka, had died. 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. Faulty auto-translation of Kannada content on @Meta platforms is distorting facts & misleading users. This is especially dangerous when it comes to official Media Advisor Shri K V Prabhakar has formally written to Meta urging immediate — Siddaramaiah (@siddaramaiah) July 17, 2025 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.'
Indian Express
3 days ago
- Politics
- Indian Express
Meta apologises for faulty Kannada translations after CM Siddaramaiah's post, claims issue fixed
After Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah flagged the problem of flawed Kannada-to-English translations on Meta platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, the social media giant on Thursday issued an apology, saying that it had 'fixed an issue that briefly caused this…'. In a post on X on Thursday, Siddaramaiah had said that such faulty translations were 'misleading' and 'dangerous,' especially when they involved official government communication. Responding to the concerns, a Meta spokesperson said, 'We fixed an issue that briefly caused this inaccurate Kannada translation. We apologize that this happened.' Machine translation models on Meta's platforms are used to provide users with automated translations of biographical information and specific content. However, in the case of Kannada, the AI-generated translation had allegedly produced errors that distorted the original meaning of the posts and official statements. Faulty auto-translation of Kannada content on @Meta platforms is distorting facts & misleading users. This is especially dangerous when it comes to official communications. My Media Advisor Shri K V Prabhakar has formally written to Meta urging immediate correction. Social… — Siddaramaiah (@siddaramaiah) July 17, 2025 'Faulty auto-translation of Kannada content on Meta platforms is distorting facts and misleading users. This is especially dangerous when it comes to official communication,' Siddaramaiah posted on X, adding that his media advisor had written to Meta, 'urging immediate correction'. In the complaint dated July 16, K V Prabhakar, Media Advisor to Siddaramaiah, said, 'Auto-translation from Kannada to English is frequently inaccurate and, in some cases, grossly misleading. This poses a significant risk, especially when public communications or important messages from the Chief Minister and the government are incorrectly translated.' '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. The Karnataka government also urged Meta to temporarily suspend the auto-translation feature for Kannada until translation quality improved, and to collaborate with qualified Kannada language experts to improve translation accuracy. While Meta claims the issue has now been resolved, the Karnataka government reiterated the need for responsible action from tech companies, especially when dealing with public communication. 'Such negligence by tech giants can harm public understanding and trust,' Siddaramaiah cautioned, advising citizens to be mindful of translation inaccuracies on social media platforms.
The Hindu
31-05-2025
- General
- The Hindu
Karnataka Sahitya Academy invites entries for 2024 awards
The Karnataka Sahitya Academy has invited entries for its annual book awards for 2024. Books published for the first time between January and December 2024 are eligible. Submissions are invited in various categories, including poetry, novel, short story, play, humour, travelogue, autobiography, literary criticism, science writing, children's literature, debut works, and Kannada-to-English translations. Four copies of each book must be submitted to the Registrar, Karnataka Sahitya Academy by July 15. For more details, visit or call 080-22211730/22106460.
