Facebook须肩负分辨真伪信息之责

搜索关注在线英语听力室公众号：tingroom，领取免费英语资料大礼包。

　　在马克.扎克伯格(Mark Zuckerberg)推出Facebook以来的12年里，全球媒体版图发生了天翻地覆的变化。这在很大程度上可归因于他在读本科期间创立的这个社交媒体平台，如今这个平台已是全球最大的新闻分销商之一。

　　Where printed newspapers were traditionally constrained¹ by the cost of physical distribution, Facebook and other social media are, by contrast, equipped with the power to transmit information across borders at limited or no cost. This has brought undoubted benefits to millions of users who can access information more readily than before. It has also brought with it responsibilities.

　　印刷版报纸传统上受到物理分发成本的约束，相比之下，Facebook和其他社交媒体具有以有限成本、甚至无成本方式跨境传播信息的威力。这给数以百万计的用户带来了不容置疑的好处，他们能够空前便利地获取信息。这也带来了责任。

　　Such obligations will become increasingly difficult for Facebook to brush aside in light of the controversy² generated by its role in the spread of misinformation.

　　鉴于Facebook在虚假信息传播方面扮演的角色所引发的争议，该公司要回避这种义务将变得越来越困难。

　　Fake news propagated by partisan³ websites proliferated⁴ across social media in an unprecedented⁵ fashion ahead of Donald Trump⁶’s victory in US elections. The degree to which this influenced voters is hard to gauge⁷. But given that more than half of Americans source news from social media, 150m of them on Facebook, it is an obvious source of concern.

　　在唐纳德.特朗普(Donald Trump)赢得美国大选之前，党派性网站发送的假消息以前所未有的方式在社交媒体上传播。很难衡量这些假消息影响选民的程度。但鉴于一半以上美国人从社交媒体获取新闻（其中1.5亿从Facebook获取新闻），这明显是一个令人担心的问题。

　　Nor is Facebook alone in feeling the heat. The spotlight⁸ shifted to Google on Monday after it gave prominence⁹ in its search rankings to a false report claiming that Mr Trump had won the popular vote.

　　也并不只是Facebook感受到压力。聚光灯在周一转向谷歌(Google)，因为它在搜索排名中突出了一则虚假报道，称特朗普已经赢得民众选票。

　　Mr Zuckerberg argues that Facebook is a technology company not a media company. Unlike traditional news media, where editors curate content and check accuracy and balance, Facebook deploys¹⁰ engineers to write algorithms that select news according to the historic preferences of users. Mr Zuckerberg is reluctant for his company to assume a role as arbiter¹¹ of the truth.

　　扎克伯格辩称，Facebook是一家技术公司，而不是一家媒体公司。不像传统的新闻媒体有编辑来策划内容、检查准确性和保持平衡，Facebook让工程师编写算法，根据用户的历史偏好来选择新闻。扎克伯格不愿让他的公司担当真相的仲裁者。

　　One advantage of the network business models adopted at the outset by the likes of Google, Facebook, Twitter, Uber and Airbnb was that they were all capital light. Ethical¹² and financial responsibility for how the networks were precisely¹³ used was less than clear. This made some sense: if you are threatened over the phone, you do not blame the phone company.

　　谷歌、Facebook、Twitter、优步(Uber)和Airbnb从一开始就采用的网络商业模式有一大优势，那就是它们都是“轻资本”的。围绕这些网络究竟如何被使用的道德和财务责任不那么清楚。这有一定道理：如果有人打电话威胁你，你不能责怪电话公司。

　　The burden of responsibility is growing for all of these businesses as they expand. Even Facebook employees have found the company’s defence less than convincing. Some of them have formed an unofficial task force to investigate the role of their platform in spreading fake news.

　　随着这些企业发展壮大，它们的责任负担也随之加大。就连Facebook员工也发现该公司的辩护缺乏说服力。其中一些人成立了一个非官方工作组，调查他们的平台在传播假消息方面起到的作用。

　　Facebook is not only a 21st-century newsagent. It plays a far more sophisticated role in disseminating¹⁴ information and encouraging the sharing of news among people of similar beliefs and opinions.

　　Facebook不只是一个21世纪的报刊亭。它在传播信息、鼓励信念和观点相似的人们在彼此之间分享新闻方面，发挥着复杂得多的作用。

　　There is tacit acknowledgment of the inherent dangers in leaving everything to algorithms. Both Facebook and Google have moved this week to restrict advertising¹⁵ on online platforms carrying fake news. If the two companies are able to discern which websites are spreading misinformation they should also be in a better position to filter out blatant¹⁶ falsehood.

　　对于把一切都扔给算法这种做法的固有危险，已经得到了默认。Facebook和谷歌两家本周已采取行动，限制在散布假消息的在线平台上投放广告。如果这两家公司能够分辨哪些网站在传播错误信息，那么它们也应该在屏蔽掉那些公然谎言方面处于比较有利的地位。

　　This is not a one-off election drama. Finding facts is becoming more important as some politicians do whatever it takes to attract support.

　　这不是一次性的选举戏剧。随着某些政界人士不择手段地吸引支持，发现事实正变得更加重要。

　　The challenges of adapting technology to play a policing role are great, and companies such as Facebook and Google are understandably wary¹⁷ of drawing accusations¹⁸ of bias¹⁹ by intervening in the nature of content. They must nevertheless shoulder some responsibility for distinguishing fact from fiction.

　　调整技术、使其起到监督作用，这里的挑战是艰巨的，而Facebook和谷歌这样的公司担心干预内容的性质会被指责存在倾向性是可以理解的。然而，它们必须肩负起区分真伪信息的一部分责任。

分享到：