美国国家公共电台 NPR Facebook Says It Removed Pages Involved In Deceptive Political Influence Campaign

 

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

Facebook gave us fresh evidence today that other countries are still trying to interfere¹ in U.S. politics. It announced that it had shut down several accounts and pages that it says were being used to stoke divisions among Americans. Facebook is not saying who was behind the effort, but signs point back to Russia and the same troll farm that was so active ahead of the 2016 election.

NPR's Tim Mak is here with more on the story. Hey, Tim.

TIM MAK, BYLINE²: Hey.

CHANG: So what details did Facebook reveal today about these ongoing³ efforts to disrupt U.S. politics?

MAK: So it said it had disrupted a campaign that involved 32 accounts, Facebook and Instagram accounts that were created between March 2017 and May of this year. And this campaign included an effort to organize counterprotests for a planned white nationalist rally that's happening in Washington, D.C., in a couple of weeks. They used this fake account to reach out to genuine American grass-roots Facebook pages to kind of help organize logistics and build legitimacy⁴ and build interest in these counterprotests.

CHANG: And what sort of impact did this campaign have?

MAK: So it's kind of misleading - right? - to think, oh, it's only 32 accounts.

CHANG: Right.

MAK: But the impact is magnitudes larger. So over the last 15 months or so, they managed to attract a total 290,000 followers⁵.

CHANG: Wow.

MAK: And they made 9,500 posts. They ran 150 advertisements. And they even organized 30 events. And although Facebook, you know, doesn't track this in the real world - they couldn't vouch⁶ for whether the events occurred - people definitely signed up for them.

CHANG: So tell us a little bit about who might be behind this. Did Facebook offer any information on that?

MAK: So they said they weren't able to definitively⁷ say who was behind the influence campaign. And they just - they didn't want to be totally conclusive⁸ about it. But here's what they did say. They said the campaign involved similar tools, techniques and procedures that were used by the Russian Internet Research Agency during the 2016 campaign. So it follows a same kind of flow. And they also had another kind of tantalizing⁹ piece of evidence. For seven minutes, a known Russian Internet Research Agency account was made a co-administrator of one of the fake pages involved in this campaign.

CHANG: OK, so Facebook made this announcement today. It's clearly trying to show it's being proactive about this. But is there any evidence that social media companies are getting any better at stopping this kind of political interference on their platforms?

MAK: You know, Facebook has said they're going to continue to investigate it. And they expect to find more evidence for meddling¹⁰ directly related to the 2018 midterms. We've been warned about this over and over again by lawmakers, by Trump¹¹ administration officials. Russia isn't done meddling in the American democratic process. We haven't known exactly what form that would take...

CHANG: Right.

MAK: ...But today we learned a little bit in this campaign. And there are other investigations¹² ongoing. But one thing that's really gotten challenging is that this round of political interference has gotten more sophisticated. If it is Kremlin-linked, the Internet Research Agency or whoever was behind this, they're leaving fewer clues. And it's becoming harder for Facebook to track it down.

In the past, the Internet Research Agency occasionally slipped up and they used a Russian IP address, which gives us some clues for the origin of the campaign. But there's no sign of that here. And these actors, they used virtual private networks to mask their identity and third parties to place their - to kind of hide what was going on behind the scenes.

So as their methods get more sophisticated, Facebook will have to get more sophisticated in finding out ways to track it and to stop it. Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer of Facebook, even went so far as to say that this was a arms race.

CHANG: Did they talk about what sophisticated methods they will be using to try to stop future efforts like this?

MAK: They were kind of a little shy in saying exactly how they might track down future efforts because that would give bad actors a way to kind of bypass whatever methods that they're trying to use. But it does involve AI. It does involve pretty sophisticated methods, they say.

CHANG: All right, that's NPR's Tim Mak. Thank you.

MAK: Thank you.

1 interfere   

v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰

参考例句：

• If we interfere, it may do more harm than good.如果我们干预的话，可能弊多利少。
• When others interfere in the affair,it always makes troubles. 别人一卷入这一事件，棘手的事情就来了。

2 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。

3 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。

4 legitimacy   

n.合法，正当

参考例句：

• The newspaper was directly challenging the government's legitimacy.报纸直接质疑政府的合法性。
• Managing from the top down,we operate with full legitimacy.我们进行由上而下的管理有充分的合法性。

5 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。

6 vouch   

v.担保；断定；n.被担保者

参考例句：

• They asked whether I was prepared to vouch for him.他们问我是否愿意为他作担保。
• I can vouch for the fact that he is a good worker.我保证他是好员工。

7 definitively   

adv.决定性地，最后地

参考例句：

• None of the three super-states could be definitively conquered even by the other two in combination. 三个超级国家中的任何一国都不可能被任何两国的联盟所绝对打败。 来自英汉文学
• Therefore, nothing can ever be definitively proved with a photograph. 因此，没有什么可以明确了一张照片。 来自互联网

8 conclusive   

adj.最后的，结论的；确凿的，消除怀疑的

参考例句：

• They produced some fairly conclusive evidence.他们提供了一些相当确凿的证据。
• Franklin did not believe that the French tests were conclusive.富兰克林不相信这个法国人的实验是结论性的。

9 tantalizing   

adj.逗人的；惹弄人的；撩人的；煽情的v.逗弄，引诱，折磨( tantalize的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• This was my first tantalizing glimpse of the islands. 这是我第一眼看见的这些岛屿的动人美景。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• We have only vague and tantalizing glimpses of his power. 我们只能隐隐约约地领略他的威力，的确有一种可望不可及的感觉。 来自英汉非文学 - 历史

10 meddling   

v.干涉，干预（他人事务）( meddle的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• He denounced all "meddling" attempts to promote a negotiation. 他斥责了一切“干预”促成谈判的企图。 来自辞典例句
• They liked this field because it was never visited by meddling strangers. 她们喜欢这块田野，因为好事的陌生人从来不到那里去。 来自辞典例句

11 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

12 investigations   

（正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究

参考例句：

• His investigations were intensive and thorough but revealed nothing. 他进行了深入彻底的调查，但没有发现什么。
• He often sent them out to make investigations. 他常常派他们出去作调查。