美国国家公共电台 NPR--Why suppressing violent videos is a constant problem for tech companies

Why suppressing violent videos is a constant problem for tech companies

Transcript¹

The mass shooting at a Buffalo² supermarket was streamed live online. In about two minutes, it was taken down. But then it began reappearing on the Internet.

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

The racist³ mass shooting at a Buffalo supermarket was streamed live online. In about 2 minutes, it was taken down. But then it started reappearing all over the internet. Suppressing violent footage is a constant problem for tech companies. And NPR's Bobby Allyn has been looking into this and joins us.

Good morning, Bobby.

BOBBY ALLYN, BYLINE⁴: Good morning.

MARTIN: Take us through - as horrific as it is - how exactly the Buffalo gunman used social media.

ALLYN: Sure. Well, he attached a GoPro camera to a military-style helmet that he wore and began livestreaming as he drove into the parking lot of the grocery store where he would kill 10 people. He used a video streaming service called Twitch⁵. It's owned by Amazon, and it's really big with gamers. And as you mentioned, Twitch did act fast. The company says it removed the stream in less than 2 minutes after the violence started. But that's when the real trouble began, right?

It started, you know, just spreading across the internet like wildfire. People were able to save copies of it. On one site called Streamable, the footage was viewed more than 3 million times before it was taken down. And Facebook, Twitter and other social sites rushed to block the video, but some links just managed to get through.

MARTIN: I mean, this sounds horrifyingly⁶ familiar, though. Well, you remember the shooter in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2019 also livestreamed his attack. Others have done the same. So why? I mean, aren't social media companies learning from these?

ALLYN: Look, there's been progress. But experts say there's just no perfect solution here. After the Christchurch shooting, countries and social platforms banded together and created a shared database of violent material that would make it easier to block something like this. Now, Saturday put that system to the test. And it's hard to know for sure how effective it was. But we do know it was not flawless because versions of the shooter's video kept popping up on Twitter and Facebook.

Now, I will say Twitch pulling the livestream down in 2 minutes was remarkable⁷. Past mass shooters who have livestreamed on Twitch have gone more than 30 minutes before the company acted. So their swift action here was indeed applauded, but the speed at which it replicated⁸ was just so hard to control.

MARTIN: New York's governor, Kathy Hochul, is saying that social media companies actually share some responsibility in the massacre⁹ that happened in Buffalo. I want to play a bit of tape. This is her addressing reporters on Saturday.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

KATHY HOCHUL: The social media platforms that profit from their existence need to be responsible for monitoring and having surveillance, knowing that they can be, in a sense, an accomplice¹⁰ to a crime like this, perhaps not legally, but morally.

MARTIN: What do you make of that, Bobby?

ALLYN: Yeah. There's a few ways to think about it. I mean, in legal terms, online platforms are usually off the hook, right? In most cases, a social media site cannot be sued for hosting comments, or in this case, a video someone posts. But morally, you know, as we heard from the governor there, it's a different debate, right?

For a long time, social media companies took a kind of hands-off approach to policing content. And now more than ever, Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites are seriously trying to tackle the societal problems the sites create. All the companies have thousands of content moderators and other systems in place to automatically block violent stuff from ever finding an audience. But the companies have more work to do.

I mean, Twitch could make it more difficult to livestream. Right now it's one of the only major video streaming sites that lets you open an account and instantly start livestreaming. Other platforms like TikTok and YouTube require a certain number of followers¹¹ before being able to go live. And some experts say maybe Twitch should do the same.

MARTIN: NPR's Bobby Allyn. Bobby, we appreciate your reporting on this. Thank you.

ALLYN: Thanks, Rachel.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 buffalo   

n.(北美)野牛；(亚洲)水牛

参考例句：

• Asian buffalo isn't as wild as that of America's. 亚洲水牛比美洲水牛温顺些。
• The boots are made of buffalo hide. 这双靴子是由水牛皮制成的。

3 racist   

n.种族主义者，种族主义分子

参考例句：

• a series of racist attacks 一连串的种族袭击行为
• His speech presented racist ideas under the guise of nationalism. 他的讲话以民族主义为幌子宣扬种族主义思想。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 twitch   

v.急拉，抽动，痉挛，抽搐；n.扯，阵痛，痉挛

参考例句：

• The smell made my dog's nose twitch.那股气味使我的狗的鼻子抽动着。
• I felt a twitch at my sleeve.我觉得有人扯了一下我的袖子。

6 horrifyingly   

参考例句：

• But creditors also appear to be fascinatingly and horrifyingly powerful. 但债权国们也显得实力雄厚，既让人着迷又令人畏惧。 来自互联网
• First, global industrial output tracks the decline industrial output during the Great Depression horrifyingly closely. 首先，全球工业产值下降的轨迹与大萧条期间惊人地接近。 来自互联网

7 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

8 replicated   

复制( replicate的过去式和过去分词 )； 重复； 再造； 再生

参考例句：

• Later outplant the seedlings in a replicated permanent test plantation. 以后苗木出圃栽植成重复的永久性试验林。
• The phage has replicated and the donor cells have lysed. 噬菌体已复制和给体细胞已发生裂解。

9 massacre   

n.残杀，大屠杀；v.残杀，集体屠杀

参考例句：

• There was a terrible massacre of villagers here during the war.在战争中，这里的村民惨遭屠杀。
• If we forget the massacre,the massacre will happen again!忘记了大屠杀，大屠杀就有可能再次发生！

10 accomplice   

n.从犯，帮凶，同谋

参考例句：

• She was her husband's accomplice in murdering a rich old man.她是她丈夫谋杀一个老富翁的帮凶。
• He is suspected as an accomplice of the murder.他涉嫌为这次凶杀案的同谋。

11 followers   

追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件

参考例句：

• the followers of Mahatma Gandhi 圣雄甘地的拥护者
• The reformer soon gathered a band of followers round him. 改革者很快就获得一群追随者支持他。