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Aceh NGO to sue Google over alleged racist translations
The Malay and Aceh Community Forum has sent a letter of objection to Google LLC in California, US and Google Indonesia after claiming it found racist translations when the names “Malay” and “Aceh” were input into the program to translate from Javanese to Malay, Indonesian and English.
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A Google LLC employee rides a Google bicycle in Sunnyvale, California, US, where the tech giant's headquarters resides. (Bloomberg/David Paul Morris)
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n a world where anyone from any background can connect with others, the online platform, Google Translate, has become an important part of society’s daily life. Providing words from hundreds of national languages and regional vernaculars, the online translation platform is a reliable assistant to help those with different tongues understand each other better.
However, translation errors happen and sometimes they can lead to racial tensions.
The Malay and Aceh Community Forum has sent a letter of objection to Google LLC in California, United States and Google Indonesia after claiming it found racist translations when the names “Malay” and “Aceh” were input into the program to translate from Javanese to Malay, Indonesian and English.
Haekal Afifa, a member of the forum, told The Jakarta Post that he captured the proof of the racist translations on his screen on Oct. 14.
“This is a [screen capture] that I recorded using the screen recording on my personal mobile phone. I recorded it on Oct. 14, 2:42 a.m.,” Haekal said in a text message on Friday.
In the capture, it is apparent that the translation of “Malay child” from Javanese to English was “son of a bitch”, while “Aceh girl” became “You jerk”, “What jerk” and “What a jerk”. There are many other examples of apparently racist translations depicted in the video.
Haekal said that the community has sent the letters to Google Indonesia using an online delivery service and to Google LLC in California via fax.
