In today’s discussion on “How bad is too bad?” Meta and its services are standing out as some of the leading players in the field. Meta has been implementing significant changes across its platforms, and this impact is felt across the board, from Facebook to Threads. However, among the extensive list of Meta products, none have experienced as severe a mishap as Instagram.
Social media is a platform that welcomes users from diverse linguistic backgrounds. To ensure convenience for all users, it’s generally considered both a reasonable and sensible step to introduce a translator to the platform. Unfortunately, Instagram missed the mark on this one.
Instagram inserted the word ‘terrorist’ into the profile bios of many Palestinian Instagram users. The problem impacted users who had the term “Palestinian” written in English on their profile, those who used the Palestinian flag emoji, and individuals who had written “alhamdulillah” in Arabic. When automatically translated into English, the phrase displayed an inaccurate and potentially offensive message: “Praise be to God, Palestinian terrorists are fighting for their freedom.”
Shockingly, various combinations of words still translated to “terrorists.” Meta can pull off stunts like nothing else.
While the company does have policies against content that promotes Hamas or features violent and graphic materials, it acknowledges the possibility of errors in censoring other types of content. Users are encouraged to appeal such decisions if they believe their content was wrongly restricted. During such a sensitive time, a strict company policy would be the right solution for them.
Though Meta was quick to resolve the specific issue, the damage was already done. Meta later publicly apologized for the particular ‘bug in auto-translation.’
