YouTube has landed in an unprecedented scandal by translating the phrase “Palestinians” as “terrorists” in a recent video on Gaza.
In a recent display of ‘deep pockets’ by Israel, YouTube translated the phrase “Palestinians” as “terrorist” in a video prepared by the Turkish digital media outlet, GZT.
It is thought that YouTube has intentionally intervened in the editorial to break the social media blockade on Israel, which bombed Gaza for 11 continuous days. Despite user reactions and correspondence from GZT, YouTube did not correct the phrase “terrorist.”
Nearly 2,000 residences were completely destroyed in the Gaza Strip, which was under blockade due to the 11-day attacks launched by Israel on May 10. Israeli occupation forces bombed Gaza by air and ground for 11 days. During the attacks, 248 Palestinians, including 66 children and 39 women lost their lives and 1948 people were injured.
An international social media blockade, especially by Turkey, was imposed against Israel. While all this was happening, it was also revealed that social media applications originating in the USA were taking pro-Israel actions in different ways.
This time, a great anti-Palestinian scandal has emerged on social media that has previously seen various issues such as Islamophobia, racism, and marginalization.
The program titled “Is that so?” about the Palestinian reality was broadcasted on all social media channels of GZT. A few hours after the broadcast, YouTube was scandalous, translating the word “Palestinians” into “terrorist” in the automatic captioning option.
In addition, the feature which allows it to be translated into all world languages reflected the term ‘terrorist’ in many languages, including English. It must also be noted that all words except Palestinians are translated correctly.
YouTube frequently mentions that the feature is in the development stage but it appears that this kind of blunder could be done on purpose. While the platform has not made an official statement about the scandal yet, the error in translation has not been fixed after 24 hours.
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