Lost in translation: Tweet puts BBMP in a tight spot
BENGALURU: The social media handle of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Chief Commissioner Gaurav Gupta once again caught the attention of netizens, but this time for all the wrong reasons. An auto translation of a Facebook post, which went viral on Wednesday, not just put BBMP officials in a tight spot, but also embarrassed citizens.
Gupta’s social media handle had a post informing students travelling abroad, that a special vaccination camp had been organised for them at Bangalore University campus. The post was in Kannada and English. But when auto translation was applied, it showed up indecent content. Netizens picked it up and shared it on multiple platforms.
A similar incident had happened in May. The Twitter handle of the chief commissioner had shared a video explaining how citizens can register on the CoWin portal for vaccination. But the slots shown were all red (all booked). Netizens trolled the post, stating that while the intention was good, the unavailability of slots was questionable. Taking note of the messages, the social media team of the chief commissioner is now taking every step with caution, to ensure there are no such posts to embarrass officials.
An official from the social media team told TNIE, “The post on Facebook pertaining to students’ information is fake and morphed. It’s mischief by someone.” On the issue of CoWIN registration, the official stated that it was corrected and the slots now shown are green. However, when checked, the video still showed the slots coloured red.