Meta, the parent company of Instagram, has issued an apology after inadvertently adding the word “terrorist” to the profiles of some Palestinian users on the platform, attributing it to an error in automatic translation. This incident has raised concerns about digital biases, transparency, and the need for clarification regarding the source of such issues.
According to The Guardian, this issue affected users who wrote the word “Palestinian” in English on their profiles, along with Palestinian flag emojis and the Arabic phrase “Alhamdulillah” (meaning “Praise be to God”). When automatically translated to English, the phrase read: “Praise be to God, Palestinian terrorists are fighting for their freedom.”
Fahd Ali, Secretary of the Australian Electronic Frontiers Organization and a Palestinian residing in Sydney, expressed concerns about the lack of transparency from Meta regarding how such incidents are allowed to occur. He questioned whether this issue stemmed from problems within training algorithms or human error in the tools, emphasizing the need for greater clarity from Meta.
A former Facebook employee, who had access to discussions among current Meta employees, told The Guardian that this problem has pushed many people to the edge both internally and externally.
Meta has faced allegations of censoring content supportive of Palestine on its platforms since the beginning of the conflict in Gaza. The company stated that it was restricting accounts that posted in support of Palestine or reducing the visibility of their content, making it less likely to appear.
In a blog post, Meta claimed that new actions had been taken to address the significant rise in harmful content spreading across its platforms since the start of the conflict between Israel and Palestinian resistance groups. The company stated that there was no truth to the suggestion that it was silencing anyone’s voice.
Meta also acknowledged that this week there was an error that led to posts and content shared in people’s Instagram Stories not being shown, resulting in a significant decrease in reach. This issue was not limited to posts related to Israel and Gaza but had a broader impact on Instagram’s functionality.
