美国国家公共电台 NPR For Many In Venezuela, Social Media Is A Matter Of Life And Death

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

President Trump¹ uses the phrase fake news a lot to criticize media stories he doesn't like. There's something similar happening in Venezuela. Last week, the government said social media is exacerbating² the spread of fake news against the regime. NPR's Jasmine Garsd reports.

JASMINE GARSD, BYLINE³: Guillermo does not exist - on social media at least. He has a Facebook account, but he doesn't publicly use his real name. He doesn't have a profile picture, no location, and he never posts a single thing. He mostly logs in to read about sports.

GUILLERMO: (Speaking Spanish).

GARSD: Guillermo asks that his last name be withheld⁴. He worries about his family. They're still in Venezuela. Over a million Venezuelans have left the country in the last two years, and he worries that if he posts anything indicating he might have money...

GUILLERMO: (Speaking Spanish).

GARSD: He says, "someone I know or who knows my family could kidnap them just because of a picture because they might think that I can pay a ransom⁵ of thousands of dollars." According to the U.S. Department of State, Venezuela is one of the most violent countries in the world. Guillermo says his friends living abroad are also very careful with social media. For him, social media is more danger than it's worth. But for a man named Javier Rojo in Caracas, it's a lifeline - literally⁶. He's a pharmacist in a country with severe medicine shortages.

JAVIER ROJO: (Speaking Spanish).

GARSD: "There are shortages of everything," he says. "Insulin is especially needed." Rojo's pharmacy⁷ has a Twitter account, which he uses to announce what they don't have, medicines people desperately⁸ need. For him, social media is truly a matter of life and death. Like in one recent post, he retweets a diabetic who is urgently seeking insulin. We haven't had insulin for over a month, Rojo tweets out. In another, he retweets someone looking for methotrexate for arthritis⁹. We don't have this, he announces. Please, retweet. On occasion, a medicine is found. A lot of times, the tweets are like messages in a bottle - no response, no follow-ups. Since he took over the account in February, the pharmacy has gone from a few dozen followers¹⁰ to nearly 30,000. One of the things that motivated him to get on Twitter was a phone call back in March.

ROJO: (Speaking Spanish).

GARSD: "A person called looking for an antidepressant, which they couldn't afford."

ROJO: (Speaking Spanish).

GARSD: "And the person responded, OK, I'm going to have to kill myself. And they hung up." Rojo says it devastated¹¹ him and motivated him to double down on the pharmacy's Twitter account that he had recently started. Eric Farnsworth is a Venezuela expert. He says social media communication is critical in the country.

ERIC FARNSWORTH: In some ways, social media has been a lifeline for common Venezuelan citizens who don't have access to the normal newspapers or radio or television that they had been accustomed to when Venezuela was a democracy.

GARSD: Farnsworth is the vice¹² president of the Council of the Americas, a think tank and business organization. He says social media can also be dangerous for many Venezuelans still living there.

FARNSWORTH: There is a real self-censorship now in Venezuela, which is to say people are very careful about what they say because you don't know who is listening, and you don't know who's hearing what you say to whom.

GARSD: In Venezuela but also here in the U.S., people like Guillermo, the guy who stays anonymous¹³ on Facebook for his family's safety. But back in Caracas, Javier Rojo says things are so bad...

ROJO: (Speaking Spanish).

GARSD: "What else could happen to us? What else?" Rojo suspects the government is already monitoring social media. He says you have to be careful, be subtle. Last month in between his posts about insulin and antibiotics¹⁴, he tweeted about how sad it makes him to see people leaving Venezuela. It was written in all lower case. It would have been easy to miss the random¹⁵ letters he capitalized throughout the tweet - L-I-B-E-R-T-A-D - libertad - freedom. Jasmine Garsd, NPR News, New York.

1 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。

2 exacerbating   

v.使恶化，使加重( exacerbate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• This pedagogical understretch is exacerbating social inequalities. 这种教学张力不足加重了社会不平等。 来自互联网
• High fertilizer prices are exacerbating the problem. 高涨的肥料价格更加加剧了问题的恶化。 来自互联网

3 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。

4 withheld   

withhold过去式及过去分词

参考例句：

• I withheld payment until they had fulfilled the contract. 他们履行合同后，我才付款。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• There was no school play because the principal withheld his consent. 由于校长没同意，学校里没有举行比赛。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 ransom   

n.赎金，赎身；v.赎回，解救

参考例句：

• We'd better arrange the ransom right away.我们最好马上把索取赎金的事安排好。
• The kidnappers exacted a ransom of 10000 from the family.绑架者向这家人家勒索10000英镑的赎金。

6 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

7 pharmacy   

n.药房，药剂学，制药业，配药业，一批备用药品

参考例句：

• She works at the pharmacy.她在药房工作。
• Modern pharmacy has solved the problem of sleeplessness.现代制药学已经解决了失眠问题。

8 desperately   

adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地

参考例句：

• He was desperately seeking a way to see her again.他正拼命想办法再见她一面。
• He longed desperately to be back at home.他非常渴望回家。

9 arthritis   

n.关节炎

参考例句：

• Rheumatoid arthritis has also been linked with the virus.风湿性关节炎也与这种病毒有关。
• He spent three months in the hospital with acute rheumatic arthritis.他患急性风湿性关节炎，在医院住了三个月。

10 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。

11 devastated   

v.彻底破坏( devastate的过去式和过去分词)；摧毁；毁灭；在感情上（精神上、财务上等）压垮adj.毁坏的；极为震惊的

参考例句：

• The bomb devastated much of the old part of the city. 这颗炸弹炸毁了旧城的一大片地方。
• His family is absolutely devastated. 他的一家感到极为震惊。

12 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

13 anonymous   

adj.无名的；匿名的；无特色的

参考例句：

• Sending anonymous letters is a cowardly act.寄匿名信是懦夫的行为。
• The author wishes to remain anonymous.作者希望姓名不公开。

14 antibiotics   

n.（用作复数）抗生素；（用作单数）抗生物质的研究；抗生素，抗菌素( antibiotic的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• the discovery of antibiotics in the 20th century 20世纪抗生素的发现
• The doctor gave me a prescription for antibiotics. 医生给我开了抗生素。

15 random   

adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动

参考例句：

• The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。
• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。