谷歌遭指控：操纵搜索引擎偏袒希拉里

本周早些时候，一个由新闻和流行文化网站SourceFed制作的调查视频火了，脸书和YouTube上的观看次数达到了数百万。

The seven-minute-long video accused the search giant Google of manipulating autocomplete suggestions to be more favorable to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, with some examples of how Google differed from its competitors Bing and Yahoo.

这个视频长达7分钟，指责搜索巨头谷歌操控自动补全提示，使结果更有利于民主党总统候选人希拉里?克林顿，并举例说明谷歌和其竞争对手必应和雅虎在搜索结果中的区别。

It claimed, for instance, that typing in "Hillary Clinton cri" would result in terms like "Hillary Clinton crime reform" rather than "crimes," or that "Hillary Clinton ind" would yield "Hillary Clinton Indiana" rather than "indictment¹."

举个例子，输入“Hillary Clinton cri”，结果就会出来“Hillary Clinton crime reform（希拉里?克林顿刑事改革）”这样的词条，而不是“crimes（犯罪）”，或者输入“Hillary Clinton ind”就会出现“Hillary Clinton Indiana（希拉里?克林顿印第安纳）”，而不是“indictment（起诉）”。

谷歌遭指控：操纵搜索引擎偏袒希拉里

In comparison, the video noted² that autocomplete results for "Donald Trump³ rac" would include the word "racist⁴" and "Bernie Sanders soc" would yield "socialist⁵."

相比之下，视频提到，“Donald Trump rac”的自动补全结果包括单词“racist（种族主义者）”，输入“"Bernie Sanders soc”则会出现“socialist（社会主义者）”。

"The intention is clear. Google is burying potential searches for terms that could have hurt Hillary Clinton in the primary elections over the past several months by manipulating recommendations on their site," SourceFed's Matt Lieberman said in the video, published Thursday.

“其意图很明显。在过去几个月的初选中，谷歌通过操控其网站的推荐信息，把有可能不利于希拉里?克林顿的潜在搜索词条隐藏了起来，” SourceFed的马特?利伯曼在周四发布的这一视频中说道。

Presumptive Republican nominee⁶ Donald Trump, who has repeatedly accused the media of biased⁷ coverage⁸ of "Crooked⁹ Hillary," even weighed in on the SourceFed video.

唐纳德?特朗普已经确定为共和党的候选人，他曾数次指控媒体有倾向地报道“狡诈的希拉里”，他甚至也在SourceFed的这个视频里发表了观点。

"If this is true, it is a disgrace that Google would do that," Trump said in a statement sent to Business Insider. "Very, very dishonest."

“如果这是真的，那谷歌可真丢脸，竟会做这样的事，”特朗普在给商业内幕网发送的声明中说道。“非常、非常不诚实。”

"They should let it float and allow people [to] see how crooked she really is," he added.

“他们应该让真相浮出水面，让人们看到她究竟有多狡诈，”他补充道。

But Google is denying that its search results are tipping the scales toward Clinton -- or any other political figure, for that matter.

但是谷歌否认它的搜索结果把天平倾向希拉里——或者其他任何政界人物。

In a statement to the Washington Times, a Google spokesperson said "Google Autocomplete does not favor any candidate or cause."

在给《华盛顿时报》的一篇声明中，谷歌一位发言人说“谷歌自动补全功能并没有偏向任何候选人或事件。”

And in a Friday blog post, Tamar Yehoshua, Google's vice¹⁰ president of product management in charge of the site's search feature, further explained that the autocomplete feature will not offer up derogatory terms in relation to any person.

并且，负责谷歌搜索功能的产品管理副总裁塔玛尔?耶霍舒亚周五发表了一篇博客，进一步解释说自动补全功能不会提供有关任何人的贬低性词语。

"The autocomplete algorithm is designed to avoid completing a search for a person's name with terms that are offensive or disparaging," Yehoshua wrote. "We made this change a while ago following feedback that Autocomplete too often predicted offensive, hurtful or inappropriate queries¹¹ about people. This filter operates according to the same rules no matter who the person is."

“我们设计的自动补全算法是为了避免搜索人名的时候填补的是有攻击性或毁谤性的词语，”耶霍舒亚写道。“这样的改变是不久前才开始实行的，因为我们得到反馈，说自动补全功能预测的总是有攻击性的、伤人的词语或不恰当的质疑。不管是什么人，这种过滤功能都以同样的准则运行。”

Yehoshua emphasized that autocomplete terminology¹² "isn't an exact science" and the results of the algorithm "changes frequently."

耶霍舒亚强调称，自动补全词语“不是精密的科学”，而且算法的结果“经常会变。”

"Predictions are produced based on a number of factors including the popularity and freshness of search terms," he added. "Given that search activity varies, the terms that appears in Autocomplete for you may change over time."

“预测基于许多因素产生，包括搜索词条的热度和新鲜度，”他补充道。“鉴于搜索活动千差万别，给你的自动填补词语也许过段时间也会改变。”

Further, the Google executive noted that while autocomplete predictions are a popular search feature, it does not actively¹³ limit the search results.

而且，这位谷歌副总裁提到，尽管自动补全预测是非常受欢迎的搜索功能，但并没有主动地限制搜索结果。

"It's a shortcut¹⁴ for those who are interested," Yehoshua said. "You can still perform whatever search you want to."

“对喜欢它的人来说这是一条捷径，”耶霍舒亚说。“你依然可以搜索任何你想搜索的内容。”

SourceFed later came out with a follow-up video published Friday to explain the thought process behind their original accusations¹⁵ and defended its results.

之后，SourceFed周五又发布了一个后续的视频，出来解释他们当初指控背后的思维过程，并为他们发现的结果进行了辩护。

"We saw something that raised a lot of red flags for us so we spent time doing research -- the results of which were worth sharing," Lieberman, the SourceFed host, said.

“我们看到了一些引起我们注意的事情，所以我们花了一些时间做调查——调查结果值得与大家分享，” SourceFed的掌门人利伯曼说。

Vocabulary

indictment: 控告

presumptive: 假定的

crook: 弯曲；诡计

disparaging: 毁谤的，轻蔑的

weigh in: 在辩论或争执场合中发表意见

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