Palestine users labelled as ‘terrorist’ on Instagram, Meta apologises

The Arabic translation of the profiles of Palestinian users was found to have inserted the word 'terrorist,' leading Instagram, owned by Meta, to tender an apology after widespread public outcry, along with an action to resolve it.

The bug affected users with the word "Palestinian" in English, the Palestinian flag emoji, and the Arabic phrase "alhamdulillah", while the translated phrase read, "Praise be to God, Palestinian terrorists are fighting for their freedom."

The issue was first highlighted by TikTok user YtKingKhan who questioned how such an error made it into production.

Following public outcry, Instagram resolved the problem, and the auto-translation now reads, "Thank God." Meta spokesperson expressed regret, stating, "We fixed a problem that briefly caused inappropriate Arabic translations in some of our products. We sincerely apologize that this happened."

Critics, including Fahad Ali of Electronic Frontiers Australia, expressed concerns about digital biases and urged Meta for transparency on the issue's origin. A former Facebook employee revealed internal discontent, stating that the incident had pushed many over the edge.

This incident comes amid accusations that Meta censored posts supporting Palestine during the Israel-Hamas conflict. Meta denied suppressing voices and claimed new measures were implemented to address harmful content.

A recent bug affected the reach of reels and posts on Instagram, unrelated to the Israel-Gaza conflict, and a global outage hit Facebook's live video service temporarily.

Meta emphasized that while content praising Hamas or displaying violent and graphic material is prohibited, errors might occur in content moderation. Users are encouraged to appeal such decisions.

Fahad Ali called for more transparency in Meta's moderation policies, citing anecdotal evidence that suggests Palestinian voices often face restrictions.