Why You Can't Currently Download Ubuntu 23.10 - OMG! Ubuntu
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Confused why you can't currently download Ubuntu 23.10, despite the fact it's been released (and blogs like mine are telling you it's out)? There's a

If you’re confused why you can’t currently download Ubuntu 23.10 despite the fact it’s been released (and blogs like mine are telling you it’s out) there is a reason.

[From Twitter]: “We have identified hate speech from a malicious contributor in some of our translations submitted as part of a third party tool outside of the Ubuntu Archive. The Ubuntu 23.10 image has been taken down and a new version will be available once the correct translations have been restored.”

Now, I’m not 100% certain but from poking around the Ubuntu Desktop Installer GitHub — I know, I’m nosey — appears to have been (sadly) the Ukrainian translation file that was hijacked. I ran the text through a translator and …Honestly, I wish I hadn’t.

It’s a broad range of offensive sentences touching on politics, sexuality, and current events. Though shocking, none of it is particularly coherent in scope. It seems to be written to be provocative for provocations sake – the sort of stuff people post on X to farm likes from far-right bots.

  • Hildegarde@lemmy.world
    68·
    1 year ago

    Minecraft got in trouble when the Afrikaans translation had the n-word (in English) due to a malicious translator. CDPR had an issue with the Ukrainian translation making references to the ongoing war.

    This sort of thing happens somewhat frequently. It’s the same reason how fake sign language interpreters can hold positions. It’s hard to verify the accuracy of a translation in a language you don’t speak. They have to trust that the translator did their job right.

    Translations are usually just text strings. No reasonable project would allow translators to write code.

    • Azzu@lemm.ee
      142·
      1 year ago

      I mean honestly though, if there are code reviews, how hard would it be to just make a quick “translation review”, putting the stuff through a translator program, and verifying it’s not obvious bullshit? Especially for new/unknown contributors. Of course it’s additional work, again, but a sanity check should easily be possible.

        • Azzu@lemm.ee
          121·
          1 year ago

          I more meant that if something contains “fucking kill all ukrainians and trans people”, which it sounds like this was something like that, that should be possible to see even with bad translation tools.

          • duncesplayed@lemmy.oneEnglish
            5·
            1 year ago

            It wasn’t, by the way. Though it could have been flagged by the dumbest of online translators (or even anyone who could read Cyrillic, since some of it uses English loanwords, like “sex” and “gay”). It should never have made it in release, but I disagree with categorizing it as “hate speech”. I feel comfortable posting it here, even though it’s pretty crude and #3 in particular is very vulgar. If anyone’s curious, here are the Google Translate translations of the vandalized parts (except for one of them, fullInstallationSubtitle, which I think is too offensive to be repeated here. It references the Israel-Palestine war):

            Suck dicks in this {DISTRO}
            Your pants aren’t off yet
            .
            Classic gay sex
            Only the bare essentials, circumcised beards and Jewish pornography.
            Warning: This feature is not supported by your synagogue and cannot support updates to future versions of the Podor system. Please, take off your pants already.
            It’s not that difficult, just take and take off your pants
            Experimental encryption of the ancient Hebrew language
            Complete infection with syphilis
            Turn off RST, spread your buttocks, and continue
            Everything is a hook
            You left with your pin point
            Too much grease on the primary socket
            Leave unwashed
            The mount point should start with removing the pants "/"

            • Skelectus@suppo.fi
              5·
              1 year ago

              That’s a lot of pant removal.

              But anyway, it should be quite possible to automatically screen the translation for something this blatant.

            • Azzu@lemm.ee
              5·
              1 year ago

              I mean yeah, I was speculating. But what you posted also seems easily detectable :D