Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah complains to Meta for 'faulty Kannada translation' on Instagram and Facebook; company issues apology

Facebook-parent Meta has issued an apology after its AI translation tool mistakenly declared Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah dead. Siddaramaiah, originally shared a post in Kannada expressing grief over the death of veteran actor B Saroja Devi. But it was mistranslated into English, resulting in strong criticism from Siddaramaiah and a formal complaint to Meta. The social media giant, as per news agency PTI has now apologised for the faux pax. The report quotes a Meta spokesperson who said “We fixed an issue that briefly caused this inaccurate Kannada translation. We apologize that this happened”.

Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah sends letter to Meta

In a letter dated July 16, the chief minister's media advisor, K V Prabhakar, raised serious concerns on behalf of the CM regarding the automatic translation of Kannada content on Facebook and Instagram. The CM also shared a post on X (formerly Twitter), where he wrote:“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 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.”The post also has a screenshot of the complaint letter sent by Prabhakar.In another news, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced plans to build a data center nearly the size of Manhattan. The facility, described as a multi-gigawatt titan cluster, will support the company’s ambitious AI initiatives, including its newly formed Superintelligence Labs division. As part of its broader AI strategy, Meta plans to spend hundreds of billions of dollars over the coming years, reflecting the scale and urgency of its vision.Zuckerberg confirmed that Meta is building several massive AI compute clusters, each with the energy footprint of a small city. One such facility, Prometheus, will be the company’s first multi-gigawatt data center, while Hyperion is designed to scale up to 5 gigawatts over time.