Meta's translation tool falsely announces Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah death; suspension of Kannada auto-translation feature sought

PTC Web Desk: In an embarrassing technological blunder, Meta’s automatic translation system mistranslated a condolence message from the Karnataka Chief Minister’s Office (CMO), erroneously declaring Chief Minister Siddaramaiah as dead. The original Facebook post, written in Kannada, was intended to mourn the death of legendary actress B Saroja Devi. However, Meta’s English translation distorted the message so gravely that it read as if Siddaramaiah himself had passed away.

The faulty translation stated: “Chief Minister Siddaramaiah passed away yesterday multilingual star, senior actress B. Took darshan of Sarojadevi's earthly body and paid his last respects.” The glaring inaccuracy quickly drew widespread attention and criticism, especially given the sensitive nature of the message.

Reacting swiftly to the mistake, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah condemned the erroneous translation and called for immediate corrective measures. In a public statement on X (formerly Twitter), he urged Meta to suspend its Kannada auto-translation feature until its accuracy can be assured.

“Faulty auto-translation of Kannada content on Meta platforms is distorting facts and misleading users. This is especially dangerous when it comes to official communications,” Siddaramaiah said. He further warned the public to approach such machine-generated translations with caution, stating, “Such negligence by tech giants can harm public understanding and trust.”

Official letter to Meta from CM's office

Backing the Chief Minister’s remarks, his media adviser, KV Prabhakar, sent a formal letter to Meta’s leadership. In the letter, the Karnataka government expressed serious concerns over the frequent inaccuracy of Kannada-to-English translations on Meta platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.

“We have noted with concern that the auto-translation from Kannada to English is frequently inaccurate and, in some cases, grossly misleading,” the letter read. It emphasised that the mistranslations, especially when they relate to public figures and government messages, could result in confusion and even panic among citizens.

The letter further called upon Meta to collaborate with Kannada language experts to improve the contextual accuracy of translations, and to clearly label machine-generated translations to avoid misinterpretation.

Meta’s response

While Meta has not released an official statement so far, it appears the mistranslation was quietly corrected following public outcry. However, concerns remain about the broader reliability of Meta's translation tools, particularly for Indian regional languages.