华盛顿邮报 Facebook被爆雇佣公关公司抹黑TikTok(1)（在线收听）

So, you may remember this challenge called "Devious Licks."

所以，你可能还记得这个叫做“恶魔偷窃”的挑战。

Supposedly, it was this big viral sensation on TikTok where, you know, teens were going into their school and they were vandalizing school property and just going wild in the bathrooms.

据说，这一挑战在TikTok上引起了巨大轰动，青少年走进他们的学校，肆意毁坏学校财产，在卫生间里肆无忌惮地玩。

And, you know, it became such a big thing because local newspapers and TV stations were talking about it.

这成为了一件大事，因为当地的报纸和电视台都在谈论这件事。

Another viral TikTok trend going in the wrong direction.

又一个病毒式传播的TikTok热门话题走向了错误的方向。

It's happening in our local schools.

这发生在我们当地的学校。

So, this trend -- you might have heard of it. It's called Devious Licks.

这个热门话题，你们可能听说过。 它叫“恶魔偷窃”。

And students have been recording themselves vandal......

学生们一直在记录自己的故意破坏行为......

Higher water fountains. It's called the Devious Lick Challenge.

高水喷泉。 它被称为“恶魔偷窃挑战”。

And the challenge is to successfully steal items from school for online popularity.

挑战在于如何成功地从学校里偷东西来提高网络人气。

There was even, you know, letters from senators to TikTok executives saying, "Hey, we need to, you know, haul your executives to D.C. to talk about these harmful and destructive acts."

参议员甚至还写信给TikTok高管，说:“嘿，我们需要把你们的高管拉到华盛顿，讨论这些有害和破坏性的行为。”

The business model is glorify destructive, sometimes deadly actions on the part of children and teens who are attracted to the site purposefully so TikTok can make more money.

这种商业模式是：美化那些有目的地被吸引到这个网站的儿童和青少年的破坏性、有时是致命的行为, 这样TikTok就能赚更多的钱。

But the more we found out, the more we realized that, actually, the Devious Licks challenge wasn't just a TikTok thing.

但我们发现的越多，我们就越意识到，实际上，“恶魔偷窃”挑战不仅仅是TikTok的事情。

If anything, it had started on Facebook.

如果说有什么区别的话，那就是这一挑战始于Facebook。

And this trend was not nearly as big as all the panic made it seem. But there's a reason for that.

而且这一热门挑战造成的恐慌并非所表现的那样严重。但这是有原因的。

These stories about Devious Licks on news stations and the scary talking points being parroted by lawmakers

这些关于“恶魔偷窃”的报道出现在新闻电视台上，议员们鹦鹉学舌地谈论着那些可怕的话题

-- they were actually being spread as part of a targeted campaign by Facebook's parent company, Meta.

——这些都是Facebook母公司Meta有针对性的宣传活动的一部分。

Drew and our colleague Taylor Lorenz broke the story that Meta had worked with a Republican consulting firm to amplify the story that TikTok, not Facebook, was dangerous for kids.

德鲁和我们的同事泰勒·洛伦茨爆料称， Meta曾与一家共和党咨询公司合作，以放大TikTok而非Facebook对孩子们的危险。

Meta was working with this Republican P.R. firm called Targeted Victory to effectively tarnish TikTok across the country

Meta与一家名为Targeted Victory的共和党公关公司合作，在全国范围内抹黑TikTok，这一行为十分有效果，

as this huge societal threat and this threat to kids and this problem online and the reason why lawmakers should not pay attention to Facebook's many issues but refocus back to TikTok and hopefully take it down.

认为TikTok是巨大的社会威胁，是对儿童的威胁，存在网络问题，议员不应该关注Facebook的许多问题，而应重新关注TikTok的问题，并希望将其删除。

The idea of the challenge was being heavily promoted by this Meta-funded communications group, Targeted Victory.

这个挑战的想法是由Meta公司资助的通讯组织“Targeted Victory”大力推广的。

I mean, we could see, from the e-mails, that they were promoting this to local media in D.C. and in Massachusetts and Michigan.

我的意思是，我们可以从电子邮件中看到，他们在向华盛顿、马萨诸塞州和密歇根州的当地媒体宣传这一事件。

They were really trying to get this story out across the country and viral, even though the whole understanding of it was totally warped.

他们真的想把这个故事传遍全国，传播开来，尽管人们对这一事件的理解完全扭曲了。

Today, Facebook's behind-the-scenes campaign to take down its biggest rival.

今天，Facebook发起了一场旨在扳倒其最大竞争对手的幕后行动。