Do social media threaten democracy? 社会媒体危害民主？

Facebook, Google and Twitter were supposed to improve politics. Something has gone very wrong. 脸书、谷歌和推特曾被认为会改善政治。有些事是大错特错了。

In 1962 a British political scientist, Bernard Crick, published “In Defence of Politics”. 1962年，英国政治学家伯纳德·克里克出版了《政治之辩护》一书。

He argued that the art of political horse-trading, far from being shabby, lets people of different beliefs live together in a peaceful, thriving society. 他指出，政治上的讨价还价非但不龌龊卑鄙，反而是让不同信念的人共同生活在一个和平繁荣的社会中。

In a liberal democracy, nobody gets exactly what he wants, but everyone broadly has the freedom to lead the life he chooses. 在自由民主制度下，没有人能够想要什么就得到什么，但是，人人都广泛地拥有过自己选择的生活的自由。

However, without decent information, civility and conciliation, societies resolve their differences by resorting to coercion. 然而，没有了正经严肃的信息，没有了谦恭与和解，社会解决分歧靠的是诉诸于高压胁迫。

How Crick would have been dismayed by the falsehood and partisanship on display in this week's Senate committee hearings in Washington. 克里克该为本周在华盛顿参议院听证会上展示的虚假和党派偏见感到多么伤心啊。

Not long ago social media held out the promise of a more enlightened politics,  不久前，社会媒体展示出一个更加开明的政治的前景，

as accurate information and effortless communication helped good people drive out corruption, bigotry and lies. 因为精准的信息和毫不费力的交流帮助好人挖出了腐败、赶走了偏执，击败了谎言。

Yet Facebook acknowledged that before and after last year's American election, between January 2015 and August this year, 146m users may have seen Russian misinformation on its platform. 然而，脸书也已承认，在去年美国大选前后，即2015年1月到今年8月期间，1.46亿用户可能在其平台上看到了俄罗斯的不实信息。

Google's YouTube admitted to 1,108 Russian-linked videos and Twitter to 36,746 accounts. 谷歌的YouTube和推特也分别承认了1108个和36746个账户与俄罗斯有关的视频和账户。

Far from bringing enlightenment, social media have been spreading poison. 非但没有带来教化启迪，社会媒体反而一直在传播毒药。

Russia's trouble-making is only the start. 俄罗斯的拨弄是非仅仅是开始。

From South Africa to Spain, politics is getting uglier. 从南非到西班牙，政治正在变得越来越丑陋。

Part of the reason is that, by spreading untruth and outrage, corroding voters' judgment and aggravating partisanship,  部分原因在于，借着传播不实之事和无名之火，借着扰乱选民的判断和加剧党派分歧，

social media erode the conditions for the horse-trading that Crick thought fosters liberty. 社会媒体侵蚀的是克里克认为是养育自由的讨价还价的土壤。