LONDON: Facebook has removed a feature that allowed users to translate Burmese posts and comments after a Reuters report showed the tool was producing bizarre results.
A Reuters investigation published on August 15 documented how Facebook was failing in its efforts to combat vitriolic Burmese language posts about Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims. Some 700,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar over the past year amid a military crackdown and ethnic violence. In late August, United Nations investigators said Facebook had been “a useful instrument for those seeking to spread hate” against the Muslim minority group.
The Reuters article also showed that the translation feature was flawed. It cited an anti-Rohingya post that said in Burmese, “Kill all the kalars that you see in Myanmar; none of them should be left alive.” Kalar is a pejorative for the Rohingya. Facebook had translated the post into English as “I shouldn’t have a rainbow in Myanmar.”
A spokeswoman for Facebook said the Burmese translation feature was “switched off” on August 28. She said the Reuters article and feedback from users “prompted us to do this.”
“We are working on ways to improve the quality of the translations and until then, we have switched off this feature in Myanmar,” the spokeswoman wrote in an email.
Facebook has had other problems interpreting Burmese, Myanmar’s main local language. In April, the California-based social-media company posted a Burmese translation of its internal “Community Standards” enforcement guidelines.
Many of the passages were botched. A sentence that in English stated “we take our role in keeping abuse off our service seriously” was translated into Burmese as “we take our role seriously by abusing our services.”
The Reuters investigation found more than 1,000 examples of hate speech on Facebook, including calling the Rohingya and other Muslims dogs, maggots and rapists, suggesting they be fed to pigs, and urging they be shot or exterminated. Facebook’s rules specifically prohibit attacking ethnic groups with “violent or dehumanizing speech” or comparing them to animals.
Shortly after the article was published, Facebook issued a statement saying it had been “too slow to prevent misinformation and hate” in Myanmar and that it was taking action, including investing in artificial intelligence that can police posts that violate its rules.
Facebook removes Burmese translation feature after anti-Rohingya posts
Facebook removes Burmese translation feature after anti-Rohingya posts
- Facebook was failing in its efforts to combat vitriolic Burmese language posts about Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims
- In late August, United Nations investigators said Facebook had been “a useful instrument for those seeking to spread hate” against the Muslim minority group
Journalist working for German media arrested in Turkiye
- A Turkish journalist working for the German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) has been arrested on accusations of “spreading false news” and “insulting the president“
ISTANBUL: A Turkish journalist working for the German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) has been arrested on accusations of “spreading false news” and “insulting the president,” the Istanbul prosecutor’s office has said.
Alican Uludag was arrested in Ankara on Thursday, the office said, on charges stemming from posts on a social media account.
Uludag’s lawyer said the journalist was being targeted for articles written for DW about the repatriation of Turkish citizens affiliated with the Daesh group.
“Alican Uludag was taken into custody (...) because of his article entitled ‘Turkiye Prepares to Repatriate Turkish Citizens Affiliated with the Islamic State’,” said attorney Tora Pekin.
Deutsche Welle said late Thursday that the “charges refer to a message published on X about a year and a half ago” in which Uludag “criticized measures taken by the Turkish government that allegedly led to the release of possible Daesh terrorists” and “accused the government of corruption.”
He was “arrested and taken away in front of his family by about thirty police officers. His home was searched and computer equipment was seized,” it said.
He is due to appear before prosecutors in Istanbul on Friday, the prosecutor’s office said.
According to a representative of Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Erol Onderoglu, “the arrest of Alican Uludag is part of a process of judicial harassment against serious journalists.”
The media watchdog group denounced “the relentless arbitrary practices that are now targeting a journalist who may have disturbed the authorities because of his investigations.”
DW chief Barbara Massing demanded Uludag’s immediate release.
“That a journalist is treated like a common criminal, taken away by some thirty police officers and immediately transferred to Istanbul, constitutes targeted intimidation and shows the extent to which the government is massively repressing press freedom,” she said in a statement.
