Meta, the parent company of Instagram, recently issued an apology for a translation issue that affected some Palestinian users’ profile bios.
The problem arose when users included the word “Palestinian” in English, alongside the Palestinian flag emoji and the Arabic phrase “alhamdulillah,” meaning “Praise be to God” in English.
The translation error led to a problematic rendering, with the translation displaying, “Praise be to God, Palestinian terrorists are fighting for their freedom” when users clicked “see translation.”
The issue came to public attention after TikTok user YtKingKhan shared a video highlighting the problem on Instagram. The video quickly went viral, prompting Meta to acknowledge the bug and issue an apology.
It’s important to note that this incident occurred in the midst of allegations that Meta was suppressing content supporting Palestinians during the Israel-Gaza conflict. Some users claimed they were “shadow-banned” for their pro-Palestinian posts, resulting in reduced visibility of their content in others’ feeds.
Meta responded by explaining that it had implemented measures to address the surge in harmful content during the Israel-Hamas conflict and denied any deliberate suppression of voices. They emphasized their commitment to preventing content praising Hamas or featuring violent and graphic material.
Additionally, Meta acknowledged a bug in the same week that affected the visibility of re-shared reels and posts in Instagram stories, resulting in a significant reduction in reach. Importantly, this issue was not limited to posts related to Israel and Gaza, according to Meta.