Instagram users were recently incensed by what Meta has termed a translation error. Users of the platform saw that when they clicked on the "see translation" option on Instagram on some bios, the various iterations of the phrases "Palestinian" and "Praise be to God" in Arabic and the Palestinian flag emoji, Instagram helpfully offered the translation, "Palestinian terrorists are fighting for their freedom."
Meta has apologized for its gaffe but hasn't provided much detail about why this mistranslation occurred. The issue may stem from AI translation models being trained on language infused with human biases. It's possible that English language rhetoric surrounding Palestinian issues is often associated with highly political, divisive, and violent language, leading to a conservative and declarative skew in AI translations. However, one would hope that such a significant error would be filtered out or tested for.
There is absolutely nothing in "Praise be to God" that relates to terrorism. The phrase, when translated verbatim, doesn't even have an inherent political intonation. If AI is learning from human biases, it risks politicizing the religious expressions of Arabic-speaking people, particularly Palestinians.
Here's a TikTok post regarding the issue:
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