How many times have you typed in a name that isn't of Anglo-Saxon origin only for your technology device to display a red zigzag line to let you know that it's actually wrong? The list is endless, but examples include autocorrection turning Deepika into Deepest or Soha into Sofa. Now, many Brits whose names have been mistranslated by autocorrect are begging IT companies to address the issue. As part of the “I'm Not a Typo” campaign, people with Welsh, Irish and Indian names are demanding a change to the operating systems of computers and phones.
The Guardian reported that one of the participants, Savan Chandni Gundecha, had her name autocorrected to “Satan.” The English daily quoted Gundecha as saying, “It's important that technology becomes more inclusive.”
One British-Indian content creator also complained about his name being automatically changed to Savant and having hyphens rejected in internet forms. “In India too, my name gets corrected to 'Sawant.' This is not just an English issue. It's a multilingual issue,” he added.
The campaign reportedly claimed that four in 10 baby names born in England and Wales in 2021 were marked as “wrong” or “unacceptable” when looked up in Microsoft's English dictionary.
The campaign group, founded by people working in London's creative sector, wrote an open letter to the tech company, pointing out that between 2017 and 2021, 2,328 people were born with the name Esmay, compared to 36 with the name Nigel. While Nigel has not been changed, Esmay has been autocorrected to Admar.
According to Gandecha, even though the majority of people have a variety of names, autocorrect prioritizes Western or white names.
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The non-profit organisation People Like Us launched a billboard campaign last year to draw attention to autocorrect's bias in favour of British people, linking the issue to the ethnic pay gap.
Recent supporters of the initiative include Rashmi Dyal Chand, a professor at Northeastern University in the US, whose name sometimes autocorrects to sashimi.
In a research paper titled “Autocorrect for White People,” Dial Chand found that computer software either corrects names to the closest English-speaking name (e.g., Ayaan to Susan) or to a completely different word (e.g., Deshawn to “Dashaway”). In an interview with The Guardian, he said that for people with names like his, autocorrect is neither helpful nor useful. “It's not helpful. In fact, it's harmful,” he added.
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First published: 25 May 2024 16:05 IST
