充滿陷阱的網絡世界 From Obama to troll farms
Hundreds of Russians plug away at keyboards, spreading pro-Kremlin propaganda on social media sites and masterminding online hoaxes every day. They work in what have come to be known as “troll farms”, named after the derogatory nickname used for people who spread hate on the internet.
數以百計的俄羅斯人每天不停地敲擊鍵盤，在社交媒體上傳播親克里姆林宮的宣傳言論，策劃一個又一個網絡騙局。他們在所謂的“巨魔農場”(troll farm)工作，這個帶有貶義的名稱源於那些在網絡上散播仇恨的人的綽號。
Adrian Chen, who visited a troll farm called the Internet Research Agency while reporting for The New York Times, believes that the Russians might be the Most organised trolls.
在爲《紐約時報》(New York Times)報道期間，Adrian Chen探訪過一個美其名曰“互聯網研究機構”(Internet Research Agency)的巨魔農場，他相信那裏的俄羅斯人可能是最有組織的“巨魔”。
However, they are not unique — social media is being used to distort political debate around the world.
然而，他們並不是唯一這樣做的人——在世界各地，社交媒體都被用於扭曲政治辯論。
In Russia, Mr Chen says, internet users may not be convinced by the comments left by trolls on internet sites. But trolling works by sowing seeds of distrust in online conversations. It pours cold water on social media’s promise to bring people together for frank discussion.
Chen表示，在俄羅斯，互聯網用戶可能不會聽信“巨魔”在網站上留下的評論。但這種行爲靠的是在網絡對話中播下不信任的種子。人們原本希望社交媒體能讓人們在一起坦誠討論，但“巨魔”行爲給這一希望潑了一盆冷水。
“This more insidious effect is to make the internet an unreliable source of information and to undermine the democratic nature of the internet. That is to the government’s advantage,” he says.
“更陰險的影響是讓互聯網淪爲不可靠的信息源，削弱互聯網的民主本質。這對政府是有利的，”他說。
Troll farms in Mexico and India work in a similar way, Mr Chen adds, and the same principle applied in “GamerGate”, an organised online harassment campaign against women in the video game industry, which erupted in 2014. “You can easily flood the internet with this garbage to try to drown out your opponents,” he says.
Chen補充道，墨西哥和印度的巨魔農場也是以類似方式運作的，同樣的道理也適用於“GamerGate”事件。這起在線騷擾視頻遊戲業女性從業者的有組織事件發生在2014年。“你可以輕易用這種垃圾淹沒互聯網，試圖蓋過你的對手，”他說。
China also runs its own propaganda armies and monitors what people post online to see how public opinion is changing. Meanwhile Isis supporters have become expert in creating anonymous accounts that are used to spread propaganda and recruit potential terrorists. As soon as companies such as Facebook and Twitter shut these down, new ones appear.
中國也有自己的宣傳大軍，並對人們在網絡上發表的言論進行監視，以查看民意變化。同時，“伊拉克和黎凡特伊斯蘭國”(ISIS)的支持者成爲了創建匿名賬戶的專家，這些賬戶被用來傳播ISIS宣傳內容和招募潛在恐怖分子。一旦Facebook和Twitter等公司關閉這些賬戶，就會有新的賬戶出現。
When social media sites first emerged, they appeared to give everybody the ability to broadcast their views, suggesting that a wider range of voices would be heard than in the mainstream media.
當社交媒體網站首次出現時，它們似乎賦予了每個人暢所欲言的能力，暗示人們會聽到比主流媒體更廣泛的聲音。
However, a system that allows people to comment anonymously, and which makes it easy to retweet and share messages, is vulnerable to manipulation, particularly by organised groups with money and personnel — especially as the mainstream media seem willing to amplify their message.
然而，一個允許人們匿名評論、並且可以方便地轉發和分享消息的系統很容易遭到操縱，尤其是受到擁有財力人力的有組織集團的操縱——特別是在主流媒體似乎願意放大他們的聲音的情況下。
Politicians have built large followings on social networks, thrilled to be able to reach voters directly. US President Barack Obama has more than 68m followers on Twitter, while the Indian prime minister Narendra Modi has more than 17m.
政治人士在社交媒體上有大批關注者，他們爲能夠直接接觸選民而感到興奮。美國總統巴拉克攠巴馬(Barack Obama)在Twitter上有逾6800萬關注者，而印度總理納倫德拉莫迪(Narendra Modi)擁有逾1700萬關注者。
But political debates that engage citizens are still rare, argues Professor Christian Fuchs, the director of the University of Westminster’s communication and media research institute. He points to Mr Obama’s use of his political account to promote a competition for a cruise to Alaska last month.
但威斯敏斯特大學(University of Westminster)傳播和媒體研究院院長克里斯蒂安富克斯(Christian Fuchs)認爲，真正吸引公民參與的政治辯論依然很少見。他舉例子指出，上月奧巴馬利用他的Twitter政治賬戶宣傳一場競賽，獎品是乘郵輪旅遊阿拉斯加。
“Such populism 2.0 reduces the political public sphere to submit-and-win contests, political spectacles and personality politics dominated by leadership figures,” he says. “What is today largely missing are politically innovative users of social media that engage citizens in political conversations with each other, in which they have the chance to discuss and explore the complexity of the key political challenges the world faces today.”
“這種2.0版本的民粹主義將政治公共空間降級爲‘提交併贏獎’的競賽、政治表演以及由領導人物主導的人格政治，”他說，“當今基本上不存在有政治創意的社交媒體用戶，他們能夠發動公民在彼此間開展政治對話，在此過程中有機會討論和探索當今世界面臨的關鍵政治挑戰的複雜性。”
Nick Anstead, assistant professor at the media department of the London School of Economics, says it is also a myth that social media is a way to reach large audiences for free.
倫敦政治經濟學院(London School of Economics)傳媒系助理教授尼克褠斯特德(Nick Anstead)表示，社交媒體是一種免費接觸大批受衆的方式的說法也是錯誤的。
“When people were first considering the internet and new media, there was certainly a sense that it was going to change the power dynamics, it would lead to a redistribution of power,” he says. But it is now clear that to thrive on social media, politicians have to have access not only to a large group of supporters and but also to money, he says.
“當人們最初考慮互聯網和新媒體時，確實有種看法認爲這些新事物將改變力量格局，導致力量的重新分配，”他說。但他表示，如今已經十分明顯的是，如果要在社交媒體上走紅，政治人士不僅必須擁有大批支持者，還需要資金。
In the 2008 US presidential election race, Obama’s campaign was seen as mastering the use of grass roots supporters to spread messages online — but it also spent 10 per cent of its paid media budget on buying digital advertising.
在2008年美國總統選戰中，奧巴馬的競選被視爲很好地利用了基層支持者來在線傳播消息——但奧巴馬選舉團隊也將10%的付費媒體預算用於購買數字廣告。
Andrew Heyward, of the MIT Media Lab, says politicians’ social media strategies now resemble those of brands, with Republican Donald Trump by far the most successful presidential candidate.
麻省理工學院媒體實驗室(MIT Media Lab)的安德魯眠葒德(Andrew Heyward)表示，如今政治人士的社交媒體戰略和品牌很像，這就是爲什麼共和黨人唐納德礠朗普(Donald Trump)成爲遙遙領先的最成功的總統候選人。
Mr Trump has made so many waves on social media they have flooded into traditional media and given him so much coverage that he is only just buying his first traditional, mainstream media advertisements.
特朗普多次在社交媒體上掀起風浪，這些風浪涌入傳統媒體，讓他獲得了鋪天蓋地的免費報道，以至於特朗普剛剛開始購買傳統主流媒體廣告。
Mr Heyward is using a new analytics tool to track the “horse race of ideas” in the US presidential election campaign.
海沃德使用了一種新的分析工具來追蹤美國總統選戰中的“思想賽馬”。
Discussion of many topics on social media — from national security to immigration — reflects what is being said in the mainstream media, and vice versa, the study has shown.
這項研究表明，社交媒體上對許多話題的討論——從國家安全到移民——反映出主流媒體正在進行的討論，反之亦然。
Because of this, Mr Heyward is more optimistic that social networks can actually become the “virtual town hall meeting” that Twitter, at least, has aspired to be.
有鑑於此，海沃德對社交媒體能夠變成“虛擬市政廳會議”抱着一種更加樂觀的看法，至少Twitter有這樣的志向。
“It is a brave new world,” he says. “But actually, ironically, even though it takes advantage of a modern and sophisticated technology, it is a throwback to what the Founding Fathers had in mind — a lively conversation.”
“這是一個美好新世界，”他說，“但具有諷刺意義的是，即使它利用精湛的現代技術，它其實是對開國先賢們願景的迴歸——一場活躍的對話。”
