The automatic translation function on Facebook caused controversy online today after a post by Malaysia’s national public broadcaster RTM congratulating the ruler of Johor, Sultan Ibrahim ibn Sultan Iskandar, on his installation as the 17th Yang di-Pertuan Agong was wrongly translated to English on the platform.
In screenshots of the viral post, RTM’s Facebook post asserting in Bahasa Melayu, “Junjung kasih kepada Yang Maha Mulia Raja-Raja Melayu,” was wrongly translated as “Condolences to His Majesty the Malay Kings.”
Facebook wrongly translated RTM’s post
Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil has since addressed the mistranslation, taking to his official Facebook page to clarify that the posting in English was an automatic translation by the social media platform and not written by RTM, as the national public broadcaster had written the post in Bahasa Melayu.
In the post, Fahmi asserted,
“Some quarters are accusing RTM of writing an indecent Facebook post in English. In reality, the real posting was made in Bahasa Melayu.”
The Communications Minister added that an irresponsible individual has also spread slander on the matter, to the point of asking him to ‘hang himself’ over RTM’s mistranslated Facebook post.
He shared a screenshot of the viral message on WhatsApp shared by the irresponsible individual in the post.
Thus, Fahmi urged people to be fair to RTM and not spread slander.
RTM had lodged a police report on the mistranslation
Besides that, as reported by BERNAMA, RTM had lodged a police report on the viral post.
Furthermore, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) contacted Meta regarding the erroneous translation, and the company has already rectified the issue.
So, what do you guys think of the whole situation? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.
