Meta apologises for translation blunder over Malaysian king's installation

Meta has apologised for an erroneous translation by Facebook’s automatic translation system regarding the installation of Sultan Ibrahim of Johor as the 17th King of Malaysian at Istana Negara. The wrongly translated information reportedly appeared on public broadcaster Radio Televisyen Malaysia’s (RTM) official Facebook page and went viral, according to Malaymail. 

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The original auto-translation wrongly interpreted the text to read “Condolences to His Majesty the Malay kings who have given trust and respect to Sultan Ibrahim, the 17th Pertuan Agong”, while the now-edited translation reads “respect” instead of “condolences” instead.

Minister of communications Fahmi Fadzil called out an unnamed individual for wrongfully blaming him in a Facebook post, emphasising that the original post was in Behasa Melayu. Posting a comparision between the auto-translation and original post written in Malay, he said: “Be fair to RTM. Don’t slander.”

In response, Meta’s director of public policy for Southeast Asia, Rafael Frankel, has apologised on a statement posted on Meta’s official Facebook. He said that it has since resolved the technical error, and apologised to RTM, the Johor State Council and others impacted by the event.

RTM has reposted Meta’s statement on its own Facebook, as well as attached a statement of its own explaining that the automatic translation was the reason for the misuse of words and RTM did not upload any condolence message content with regards to the Installation Ceremony of the 17th King.

Photo courtesy of Fahmi Fadzil, RTM/Facebook

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