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Ubuntu 23.10 download got pulled down due to a malicious translation

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Canonical announced shortly after the release of Ubuntu 23.10 that the official downloads were pulled, as there was hate speech identified from a malicious contributor in some of their translations.

They posted the announcement on X, with a link to their Discourse post that gave a bit more info. In the post they mentioned it affected a "specific set of translations of the Ubuntu Desktop installer UI" and so they've taken immediate action to sort the situation with the translations being removed and replaced.

Affected downloads were for Ubuntu Desktop 23.10, Ubuntu Budgie 23.10 and the Ubuntu Desktop daily images.

Since it's all open source on GitHub, we can go in and check what actually happened. Specifically, the Ukrainian translation has been entirely removed for now and it doesn't really take a lot of thought as to why. I translated a bit of it that I won't repeat here and…yeah. No surprise it has been pulled, it was bad.

Completely ridiculous that someone would target a Linux distribution like this.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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About the author -
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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12 comments
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melkemind Oct 14, 2023
Quoting: SalvatosAnd this is why I'm always a little dubious when companies ask for crowdsourced translations and don't even hire professional reviewers. It's hard enough to ascertain you're getting quality work from professionals in a language you can't even read, but there's really nothing stopping random schmoes from pulling stunts like these if you don't even check.

It reminds me of that time a guy was supposed to be a sign language interpreter but was actually just doing a bunch of random hand motions. It can happen whether you crowd source or not.
iHad169 Oct 17, 2023
Everyone has no idea what democracy and freedom are. It is not the freedom to talk about everything that is most precious, but the freedom to hear everything that comes first.
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