Enlarge / Palestine's flag. (credit: Wong Yu Liang | Moment)
Meta has apologized after a 404 Media report investigating a viral TikTok video confirmed that Instagram's "see translation" feature was erroneously adding the word "terrorist" into some Palestinian users' bios.
Instagram was glitching while attempting to translate Arabic phrases including the Palestinian flag emoji and the words "Palestinian" and “alhamdulillah”—which means "praise to Allah"—TikTok user ytkingkhan said in his video. Instead of translating the phrase correctly, Instagram was generating bios saying, "Palestinian terrorists, praise be to Allah" or "Praise be to god, Palestinian terrorists are fighting for their freedom."
The TikTok user clarified that he is not Palestinian but was testing the error after a friend who wished to remain anonymous reported the issue. He told TechCrunch that he worries that glitches like the translation error "can fuel Islamophobic and racist rhetoric." It's unclear how many users were affected by the error. In statements, Meta has only claimed that the problem was "brief."
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