FT大視野 假新聞爲特朗普助選了嗎
To judge by the headlines being passed around on social media during her campaign, Hillary Clinton was often in serious trouble.
從大選期間社交媒體上傳播的頭條文章來判斷，希拉里.克林頓(Hillary Clinton)時常處於嚴重的麻煩之中。
Experts believed the Democratic presidential candidate had suffered brain damage.
專家認爲這位民主黨總統候選人遭受了腦損傷。
Or maybe she was trying to hide alcohol and drug addiction.
或者她可能正試圖隱瞞自己酗酒和吸毒。
She was also facing imminent indictment, now that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had finally found evidence of criminality in her use of a private email server — though the New York Police Department, after uncovering shocking evidence of her links to money laundering and sex crimes involving children, might pounce first.
由於美國聯邦調查局(FBI)最終發現了她使用私人郵件服務器的犯罪證據，她還面臨着迫在眉睫的起訴，不過紐約警察局(NYPD)在發現了她與洗錢和涉及侵害兒童的性犯罪有關的令人震驚的證據後，可能率先出擊。
In the heat of the most bitter US presidential election in memory, the internet was having a field day.
在記憶中這場最激烈的美國總統大選到達白熱化的時候，互聯網上也在進行一場競賽。
A barrage of fake news — much of it aimed at undermining Mrs Clinton or boosting her opponent — was just part of the diet.
鋪天蓋地的假新聞——許多旨在損害希拉里的形象或擡高她的對手——只是家常便飯。
It included conspiracy theories, misdirection, prejudice, harassment and hate speech, specially created to circulate on the digital networks that are now central to mass communication and media consumption.
其中包括陰謀論、誤導、偏見、騷擾和仇恨言論，這些內容被製作出來專門在如今成爲大衆傳播和媒體消費核心的數字網絡上散播。
According to critics, the digital platforms contributed to a virulent tribalism, as long-simmering partisan divisions boiled over.
據批評人士稱，隨着長久以來的黨派分歧日益激化，數字化平臺促成了一種危險的部落文化。
And they served to further undermine faith in established media outlets, as many members of a polarised electorate found ready support for the prejudices and unfounded suspicions they already harboured.
同時，這些平臺還進一步破壞了人們對傳統媒體渠道的信任，兩極分化的選民中的許多人發現，他們早已持有的偏見和毫無根據的懷疑很容易找到支持。
The aftermath has brought criticism of some of the biggest internet companies — in particular Facebook and Twitter — and an admission that change is needed.
大選後的餘震使得一些大型互聯網公司飽受批評——特別是Facebook和Twitter——並促使它們承認需要改變現狀。
We have a problem in the tech industry we have to deal with, says John Borthwick, a New York tech investor.
在科技行業，我們要處理一個問題，紐約的科技投資者約翰.博思威克(John Borthwick)稱，
These platforms are central to our democracy.
這些平臺處於我們民主的核心。
Something has started to go wildly wrong.
有些事情開始錯得離譜了。
Finger pointing
千夫所指
The backlash in the wake of the election of Donald Trump, the Republican candidate, has centred on fake news: false reports that are dressed up to look like genuine news articles, sometimes from news sources invented solely for the purpose.
共和黨候選人唐納德.特朗普(Donald Trump)當選總統後爆發的強烈反彈集中針對假新聞：僞裝得像真正的新聞文章一樣的虛假報道，其來源有時是專門爲造假而捏造的。
Passed around widely on Facebook, retweeted on Twitter or promoted by Google’s search algorithms, some of these stories managed to infiltrate the popular political discourse.
其中部分所謂的新聞在Facebook上瘋狂傳播、在Twitter上被廣泛轉發或者被谷歌(Google)的搜索算法推廣，最終成功滲入了大衆的政治討論中。
They included the report from the Denver Guardian, a non-existent publication, that an FBI agent suspected of leaking emails from Mrs Clinton’s private server had been found dead in a murder or suicide.
其中包括一篇來自子虛烏有的刊物《丹佛衛報》(Denver Guardian)的報道：一名被疑泄露了希拉里私人服務器上郵件的FBI特工被發現死於謀殺或自殺。
With the velocity that characterises the flow of news on Facebook, that report was shared up to 100 times a minute on the network.
憑藉Facebook標誌性的新聞傳播速度，這則新聞在該社交媒體上以每分鐘100次的分享速度迅速擴散。
Not all the misinformation favoured the Republican candidate, though most of it did.
並非所有的虛假消息都有利於那位共和黨候選人，但大多數假消息確實如此。
Of the 20 fakes that generated the most audience engagement on Facebook in the final three months of the campaign, all but three were either pro-Trump or anti-Clinton, according to an analysis by news website BuzzFeed.
新聞網站BuzzFeed的一項分析顯示，在美國大選最後3個月Facebook上引發最多網民參與的20條虛假消息中，有17條要麼支持特朗普、要麼反對希拉里。
The made-up stories also touched a nerve: Facebook’s users engaged more deeply with the fakes than the top 20 stories produced by a selection of established media companies.
虛假報道還觸及了另一個痛點：Facebook用戶參與這些虛假報道的程度，超過對幾家傳統媒體公司最熱門的20篇報道的參與。
The viral success of fake news on Facebook and the role the sharing of these articles might have had in tilting the election for Mr Trump have caused considerable angst inside the company.
Facebook上虛假新聞的病毒式成功傳播、以及此類文章的分享使得競選局面向特朗普傾斜的可能作用，在該公司內部引發了極大的擔憂。
There is anxiety around the election and there are questions around the role that Facebook and other organisations may have played, says one person with knowledge of the internal discussions at the social networking site.
現在人們對大選結果很焦慮，有人質疑Facebook和其他企業可能在其中扮演的角色，一名知道該社交網站內部討論情況的知情人士稱。
President Barack Obama said last week that, when it is no longer possible to tell what’s true and what’s not, and particularly in an age of social media . . . then we have problems.
總統巴拉克.奧巴馬(Barack Obama)上週表示，當不再可能分辨是與非，特別是在社交媒體時代……那麼我們就有麻煩了。
In Silicon Valley, where a dominant liberal culture is in shock over the election result, there has been finger pointing over the part the world’s most powerful tech companies may have played.
在硅谷，佔主導的自由文化仍然因大選結果而處於震驚之中，有人開始指責這些世界最強大的科技公司在大選中可能扮演的角色。
People need to step up and call out the platforms for being effectively propaganda machines for either side, says Justin Kan, a successful entrepreneur and now an investor at Y Combinator, which funds internet start-ups.
人們需要站出來指出這些平臺實際成爲了雙方的宣傳機器，成功的創業者、如今身爲Y Combinator投資人的簡彥豪(Justin Kan)說，硅谷領袖應該呼籲Facebook做正確的事。
The leadership in Silicon Valley needs to call out Facebook to do the right thing.
Y Combinator爲互聯網初創企業提供資金。
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, has rejected much of the criticism, while conceding that there is more to be done to stop the spread of fake news.
Facebook首席執行官馬克.扎克伯格(Mark Zuckerberg)反駁了很多批評，同時承認確實需要付出更多努力來阻止虛假新聞傳播。
In the days after the election, he claimed it was a pretty crazy idea that false stories had somehow had a bearing on the result.
在大選後幾天，他聲稱，認爲虛假報道以某種方式影響了大選結果，是相當瘋狂的想法。
But growing pressure led him at the end of last week to outline a number of measures the site was taking to try to tackle the problem.
但越來越大的壓力使得他在上週末制定了一些該網站將採取的措施，以解決該問題。
The steps taken by the big internet companies in the wake of the election highlight the pressure they have been under to act.
大型互聯網公司在大選後採取這些措施，突顯了他們承受的行動壓力。
Google and Facebook moved last week to prevent their advertising from appearing on sites that carry fake news, a belated attempt to make lying less profitable.
上週，谷歌和Facebook採取行動禁止其廣告出現在帶有虛假新聞的網站上，這一遲來的舉動是爲了削減說謊網站的利潤。
Twitter suspended a batch of alt-right accounts — linked to US rightwing extremist groups — for hate speech.
Twitter暫停了一批與美國右翼極端組織有關的發表仇恨言論的另類右翼(alt-right)賬戶。
Evidence that has surfaced since the election shows that the digital platforms will have to do more to weed out misinformation and harassment from their systems,
自大選以來浮現的證據表明，數字平臺將不得不採取更多行動剷除其系統內的不實消息和騷擾信息。
Taking in not just fake news but a wider range of abusive behaviour.
這些平臺不僅接收了虛假新聞，還容忍了更廣泛的欺騙行爲。
Bots — automated systems designed to imitate people — did much to circulate fake news headlines on Twitter, according to Philip Howard, a professor at Oxford university’s internet institute.
據牛津大學(Oxford University)互聯網學院的教授菲利普.霍華德(Philip Howard)表示，模仿人類發帖的自動系統bot，在很大程度上對Twitter上虛假新聞的傳播起到了推波助瀾的作用。
About a fifth of all tweets about the election were generated by accounts that produce high volumes of posts, he says, a clear indication that they were bots rather than real users.
他稱，在所有有關大選的Twitter帖子中，約有五分之一來自發出大量帖子的賬戶，明顯表明這些賬戶是bot而非真正用戶。
‘Digital denial’
數字化開脫
Google’s algorithms have also been shown to be vulnerable.
谷歌的算法也表現出漏洞。
For instance, it is a week since a false report that George Soros — often a target of rightwing attacks — had died.
例如，有關喬治.索羅斯(George Soros)——常常是右翼攻擊的目標——去世的虛假報道已經出現一週了。
But a search for George Soros on November 20 still returned this headline at the top of the In the News section of Google’s first page of results: Breaking Intel: George Soros DEAD.
但11月20日在谷歌上搜索喬治.索羅斯，這條報道仍然出現在谷歌搜索結果首頁新聞欄的首位上：爆炸新聞：喬治.索羅斯去世。
The story was from a site called the Event Chronicle.
該報道來自一個名爲事件編年史(Event Chronicle)的網站。
Facebook’s Mr Zuckerberg says only 1 per cent of news circulating on the site was fake.
Facebook的扎克伯格稱，該網站傳播的新聞中只有1%是假新聞。
But with the company now used as a news source by nearly half of Americans, that represents a vast amount of traffic.
但是考慮到如今將近一半的美國人都把該網站作爲新聞獲取渠道，該數字代表着相當龐大的傳播量。
Also, Mr Howard says the location of bot groups operating on Facebook suggests much of the fake information was targeted at Facebook users in swing states like Ohio and Florida, potentially increasing its impact.
此外，霍華德稱，在Facebook上運營的bot小組的位置表明，大量虛假信息都是針對俄亥俄州和佛羅里達州等搖擺州的Facebook用戶，這可能擴大了虛假信息的影響力。
The failure to block the tide of misinformation has reawakened complaints from the traditional media world that the digital companies have deliberately turned a blind eye, much as they were accused of doing in the case of copyrighted content.
數字化平臺沒能阻止潮水般的不實信息，這使人想起了傳統媒體世界的抱怨——數字化企業故意睜一隻眼閉一隻眼，就像他們被指責在保護版權問題上所做的一樣。
Google and Facebook have resisted describing themselves as media companies or publishers that are responsible for the content they distribute.
谷歌、Facebook一直拒絕將自身描述爲應對所發佈內容負責的傳媒公司或出版機構。
These companies are in digital denial, says Robert Thomson, chief executive of News Corp.
這些公司在進行‘數字化開脫’，新聞集團(News Corp)首席執行官羅伯特.湯姆森(Robert Thomson)表示，
Of course they are publishers and being a publisher comes with the responsibility to protect and project the provenance of news.
他們當然是出版機構，作爲出版機構有責任保護並突出消息來源。
The great papers have grappled with that sacred burden over decades and centuries, and you can’t absolve yourself from that burden or the costs of compliance by saying, ‘We are a technology company’.
幾十年、乃至幾個世紀以來，一些偉大的報紙一直堅守這一神聖的職責，你不能僅靠聲稱‘我們是一家科技公司’就讓自己免於承擔這一職責或合規成本。
Along with other recent failures, such as errors in measurement that led Facebook to inflate the number of times its video ads were seen, the furore over fake news has intensified calls for internet companies to think of themselves as media concerns.
伴隨最近出現的其他醜聞（如Facebook錯誤的計算方式導致其視頻廣告的觀看次數被誇大），對假新聞的憤怒加強了要求互聯網公司視自身爲傳媒公司的呼聲。
The measurement, fake news and extremist content issues highlight that new media or social media companies are not technology companies; they’re media companies, says Sir Martin Sorrell, chief executive of WPP, the world’s largest advertising group.
計算方式、假新聞、極端內容等問題突顯出，新媒體或社交媒體公司並非科技公司，而是媒體公司，世界最大廣告集團WPP首席執行官蘇銘天爵士(Sir Martin Sorrell)表示，
They are responsible for the content in their digital pipes.
它們應對自家數字渠道的內容負責。
Yet the business imperatives the internet platforms follow may have given them too little incentive to exercise this type of responsibility.
然而，互聯網平臺遵循的商業準則可能不會給他們任何激勵來承擔此類責任。
Weeding out false information hasn’t been a priority, says Mr Borthwick.
清除虛假信息一直都非優先事項，博思威克說，
Content, more often than not, has been a means to an end — and the end is more sharing, more connectivity.
內容往往都是實現目的的手段，而這個目的正是更多分享、更多連接。
One former Facebook staffer also says the way the company is run may have exacerbated the distribution of fake news.
Facebook一名前員工也表示，公司的管理方式或許加劇了假新聞的傳播。
Its engineers focus on improving engagement — clicks, likes, comments, shares — as the primary measures of success of any new feature.
Facebook的工程師們只關注提高參與度——點擊、點贊、評論、分享——作爲評估所有新功能成功與否的主要指標。
New projects are typically released after six-month sprints, during which pressure to increase those metrics is intense.
新功能通常要經過6個月的密集測試才能發佈，在此期間，提升這些指標的壓力很大。
Engagement is a dangerous drug, says a former Facebook manager.
參與度就像毒品，Facebook一名前經理表示，
Nobody is incentivised to think critically about unintended, often long-term consequences.
沒人受到激勵去批判性地思考意想不到的長期後果。
That may also contribute to a filter bubble problem that leaves users inside an echo chamber of similar views.
這或許還帶來了過濾器泡沫問題——讓用戶處於一個大家都持相似觀點的迴音室中。
Worse, the pursuit of engagement for its own sake may exacerbate the problem and add to the flow of angry, hateful and inaccurate information.
更糟糕的是，追求參與度本身可能會加劇這一問題，增加憤怒、仇恨以及不準確信息的流動。
There’s a lot of evidence that what people share is not necessarily what they researched but what gives them an emotional response, says Mr Kan.
簡彥豪表示:有很多的證據表明，人們分享的未必是他們調查過的信息，而是那些激起他們情緒反應的信息.
The posts that bring the strongest reactions, adds Mr Borthwick, are catnip to the news feed.
博思威克還表示，那些帶來最強烈反應的帖子是新聞推送的最愛。
So the Facebook engineers have an incentive to feature these items most prominently, aiding the spread of information that deepens political divisions.
因此，Facebook的工程師們有動力將這些新聞放在最突出的位置，這助推了那些深化政治分歧的信息的傳播。
Room for improvement
改善空間
It is unclear how far the internet companies will move to address these issues.
還不清楚互聯網公司將在多大程度上採取措施解決這些問題。
Early attention has turned to the algorithms used to weed out fake news, an area in which many experts believe there is scope for improvement.
注意力已經投向用來清除假新聞的算法，許多專家認爲這一領域有改善空間。
Mr Zuckerberg has made no mention of another issue raised by critics: whether the sites should hire human editors.
扎克伯格並未提及批評者提出的另一個問題：Facebook是否應該僱用人工編輯。
Employing people to carry out detailed filtering of content is impractical given the scale of the networks, say critics such as Mr Borthwick.
博思威克等批評人士表示，考慮到社交網絡的規模，利用人工對內容進行詳細過濾是不現實的。
But he, and others, argue that internet companies should still hire public editors who can help to establish guidelines and shape their thinking in product design and other issues that will affect the way their services are used.
但他和其他一些人都認爲，互聯網公司還是應聘請公衆編輯，後者能幫助在產品設計及其他影響他們服務使用方式的問題上確立準則，塑造思維。
Such calls may continue to fall on deaf ears.
此類呼籲可能仍舊得不到理睬。
The culture they’ve built and the people they’ve hired mean that internet companies like Facebook simply do not recognise any need for editorial sensibility, says Ben Edelman, an assistant professor at Harvard Business School.
哈佛商學院(Harvard Business School)助理教授本.埃德爾曼(Ben Edelman)說：他們打造的文化與他們僱用的人意味着Facebook等互聯網公司根本不會認可有必要建立編輯敏感性。
The cultural chasm runs even deeper.
文化上的鴻溝更深。
On Twitter, a commitment to free speech has long contributed to the site’s hesitation to stamp out harassment, a flaw it belatedly tried to fix last week with new controls to combat bullying, racism and misogyny.
在Twitter上，對言論自由的承諾使得該網站對清理網絡騷擾一直猶豫不決，該公司上週才遲緩地採取新控制措施防止欺凌、種族主義和婦女仇視，嘗試彌補這一缺陷。
Mr Zuckerberg, casting Facebook more as a communication platform than a media site, takes a similar stance.
扎克伯格也持類似的立場，他認爲Facebook更多是一個溝通平臺，而非一家傳媒網站。
We believe in giving people a voice, which means erring on the side of letting people share what they want whenever possible, he wrote last week.
我們相信要讓人們發聲，這意味着支持讓人們隨時隨地分享自己想要分享的東西，上週他寫道。
But old authorities become muted in a world where users’ voices are pre-eminent.
但在一個互聯網用戶的聲音被突出的世界，傳統權威變得無聲。
In an interview last week with The New Yorker, Mr Obama complained that, on a Facebook page, an explanation of global warming by a Nobel Prize winner looks no different than one by a paid climate change denier.
上週在接受《紐約客》(The New Yorker)採訪時，奧巴馬抱怨稱，在Facebook頁面上，一位諾貝爾獎得主對全球變暖的闡釋看上去並不比一個收了錢的氣候變化否認者的言論重要。
He added: The capacity to disseminate misinformation, wild conspiracy theories, to paint the opposition in wildly negative light without any rebuttal — that has accelerated in ways that much more sharply polarise the electorate and make it very difficult to have a common conversation.
他補充道：人們傳播錯誤信息、胡編亂造的陰謀論以及用極爲負面的言論抹黑反對者、並讓其無法進行任何反駁的能力已經大增，這將加劇選民分化，使得正常的對話都變得非常困難。
In the wake of a bitterly divisive US election, Facebook users are retreating deeper into their filter bubbles.
在這場存在嚴重分歧的美國大選後，Facebook的用戶正進一步退入他們的過濾器泡沫。
The bitterness of the loss, says Mr Howard, means that many on the losing side have been systematically unfriending people who voted for the other candidate.
霍華德表示，失敗的痛苦使得失敗一方的許多人已在大量解除與投票支持對方候選人的人的好友關係。
The result is likely to be even deeper tribal divisions.
結果很可能在不同羣體間造成更深的裂隙。
That can only add to an environment in which many people are all too ready to believe the most biased or inaccurate information about the opposing camp — and to shout it out to anyone who will listen.
這隻會加劇一種氛圍：很多人都太容易相信關於反對陣營的最具偏見或最不準確的信息，並大聲告訴所有願意聽的人。
