Social media giant Meta has issued a public apology following a mistranslation incident that falsely announced the death of Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in Facebook and Instagram posts, triggering widespread confusion online.
The error occurred when an auto-translation of a condolence message posted by Siddaramaiah in Kannada, mourning the death of legendary Indian actress B. Saroja Devi, incorrectly stated that the Chief Minister himself had died. The translation glitch sparked alarm before it was clarified and corrected.
Siddaramaiah had posted the original message on Tuesday in Kannada to pay tribute to the veteran actress, who passed away on Monday in Bengaluru after a celebrated career in Indian cinema spanning more than 70 years and 200 films.
However, when users selected the automatic English translation on Meta-owned platforms, it wrongly conveyed: “Chief Minister Siddaramaiah passed away yesterday…”—misleading many readers.
Taking to social media platform X (formerly Twitter), Siddaramaiah confirmed that his media team had contacted Meta regarding the serious error. He criticised the company for the inaccuracy and urged for improvements in its translation systems.
“I request everyone not to spread confusion or misinformation based on an error that did not originate from us. It is time Meta puts in place better and more responsible translation systems,” he wrote.
Meta responded promptly, acknowledging the issue and issuing an apology. “We fixed an issue that briefly caused this inaccurate Kannada translation. We apologise that this happened,” a Meta spokesperson said, as quoted by Press Trust of India (PTI).
The error has since been corrected, and the current auto-translation now accurately reflects the intended message: “Multilingual star, senior actress B passed away yesterday in Bangalore,” according to reports from the Khaleej Times, which tested the auto-translation tool following the controversy.
Kannada, a Dravidian language, is the official language of Karnataka and one of India’s 22 scheduled languages. While Meta supports translation in many regional languages, incidents like this highlight ongoing challenges with the accuracy of automated tools, especially for complex or less globally used languages.
The incident has reignited calls for tech companies to strengthen linguistic accuracy and quality assurance in their translation features, particularly when public figures or sensitive topics are involved.
