Instagram Issues Apology for Incorrectly Labeling Some Palestinian User-Profiles as ‘Terrorist’

The term “terrorist” was accidentally included in the bios of several Palestinian Instagram users, for which Meta has expressed regret and blamed an auto-translation glitch in its system.

Some bios that began with the word “Palestinian” and ended with the emoji of the Palestinian flag and the Arabic phrase “Alhamdulillah,” which means “Praise be to God,” were automatically translated as “Praise be to God, Palestinian individuals fighting for their freedom.” In a recent response, TikTok user YtKingKhan addressed the issue, saying that many combinations were still translating to “terrorist.” Instagram fixed the issue following the video. Now, “Thank God” appears in the auto-translation. 

Meta addressed an issue that momentarily resulted in incorrect Arabic translations in certain of its products, according to a statement released by the company. Meta is deeply sorry for this incident. Critics, such as Fahad Ali of Electronic Frontiers Australia, have voiced concerns about digital biases and the source of the problem, and have urged greater transparency from Meta. Moreover, Ali recommended that Meta disclose its moderating guidelines more freely. “Meta frequently attributes these issues to automated moderation problems, although it seems that Palestinian voices are increasingly caught up in this situation.” 

After the recent attacks, Instagram users accused the platform of limiting posts supporting Palestine. In a blog post on Wednesday, Meta stated that they had implemented new measures following the Israel-Hamas conflict to address the increased circulation of harmful content on their platforms. Meta also contested the claim that they were stifling anyone’s voice, asserting that there was a bug this week causing shared reels and posts not to appear in Instagram stories. This problem resulted in a noticeable decrease in reach and affected all types of posts, not just those related to Israel and Gaza. Meta also claimed that their Facebook live video service experienced a brief global disruption.