Instagram inserts ‘terrorist’ into Palestinians' biography translations
What happened
Instagram inserts ‘terrorist’ into Palestinians' biography translations
Occurred: October 2023Report incident 🔥 | Improve page 💁 | Access database 🔢
Instagram's automated translation system updated the biographies of some people calling themselves 'Palestinian' and containing an Arabic phrase meaning 'Praise be to God' to say 'Palestinian terrorists are fighting for their freedom.'Having written in his biography that he was Palestinian, followed by a Palestinian flag and the word "alhamdulillah" in Arabic (which translates to 'Praise be to God' in English), Instagram user @khanman1996 showed that Instagram's 'see translation' function provided an English translation reading: 'Praise be to God, Palestinian terrorists are fighting for their freedom'.The incident raised questions about the reliability of Meta's translation tool. It also prompted users and commentators to highlight concerns that Meta may have been suppressing content voicing support for Palestinians during the Israel-Gaza conflict. Meta said it fixed a problem 'that briefly caused inappropriate Arabic translations' and apologised, telling the BBC, 'We sincerely apologise that this happened.'
System 🤖See TranslationOperator:Developer: Meta/Instagram Country: Israel; PalestineSector: PoliticsPurpose: Translate textTechnology: Language translation system; Machine learningIssue: Accuracy/reliability; Human/civil rights
News, commentary, analysis 📰https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-67169228https://www.404media.co/instagram-palestinian-arabic-bio-translation/https://wonderfulengineering.com/meta-says-instagram-is-sorry-for-translating-palestinian-profiles-to-terrorists/https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/oct/20/instagram-palestinian-user-profile-bios-terrorist-added-translation-meta-apologyhttps://www.scmp.com/news/world/middle-east/article/3238713/meta-apologises-after-auto-translate-added-terrorist-biographies-palestine-supporters-instagramhttps://futurism.com/instagram-palestinian-terrorist-biohttps://www.businessinsider.com/instagram-apologize-auto-translate-palestinian-terrorists-fighting-freedom-bios-meta-2023-10https://news.sky.com/story/instagram-apologises-after-inserting-terrorist-into-some-palestinian-profiles-12988227
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Reported impact
- Affected parties
- Not publicly disclosed
- Harm type
- Not publicly disclosed
- Scale
- Not publicly disclosed
- Financial impact
- Not publicly disclosed
- Regulatory action
- Not publicly disclosed
Classification
Relevant governance controls
Governance control mapping is not available for this record.
- No controls mapped
Not publicly disclosed
Control mapping is analytical. It does not state that any control would have prevented the incident.