2020年经济学人 Facebook和专制统治者(1)

Middle East & Africa

中东和非洲板块

Facebook and autocrats¹

Facebook和专制统治者

With friends like these

和这样的朋友在一起

The social-media giant has been bending to the will of Arab despots

社交媒体巨头Facebook屈从于阿拉伯专制统治者的意愿

For Sariya Al-bitar, an architect in Syria’s war-torn city of Idlib, the message was devastating². “Your account has been permanently³ disabled for not following our Facebook Community Standards,” read the note from the social-media giant. “Unfortunately, we won’t be able to reactivate it for any reason.” Fourteen years of family photos, reminiscences and his diary of Syria’s civil war—along with his list of 30,000 followers—were erased⁴. Mr Bitar had tried to be careful. He had not called dead rebels shahids (martyrs) or posted gore⁵. He suspects Facebook silenced him for commemorating⁶ a Syrian football star who, after months of protesting, picked up arms and was killed by the regime of Basharal-Assad.

萨里塔·阿尔·比塔尔是一名建筑师,生活在叙利亚的一个饱受战乱蹂躏的城市伊德利卜市，对于他来说，这则消息骇人听闻。“您的账户因不遵循我们的Facebook社群标准而被永久禁用，”这家社交媒体巨头在留言中写道。“不幸的是，我们无法以任何理由重新激活它。”14年以来的家庭相片、回忆和他关于叙利亚内战的日记，连同他3万名追随者的名单都被抹去了。比塔尔试图小心点。他没有称呼叛军为殉道者（烈士），也没有发布残暴词汇。他怀疑Facebook禁用自己的账户的原因是自己纪念了一位叙利亚足球明星，这位足球明星在抗议数月后拿起了武器，被巴沙尔·阿萨德政权杀害。

In a region ruled by despots, Facebook claims to give “free expression maximum possible range”. That has won it a vast following. The platform has more users in the Gulf⁷ states than anywhere else in the world, relative to the population. It is the main source of news for many Arabs. Some even credit it for the Arab spring protests of 2011. But since going public in 2012, Facebook has grown more mindful of the authoritarians⁸ who provide it with access, say critics, and less hospitable⁹ to activists¹⁰. In recent months it has culled¹¹ hundreds of users from Tunisia to Iran and deleted hundreds of thousands of posts. “Many people feel that Facebook is no longer a platform they can use to hold the powerful to account,” says Marwa Fatafta of Access Now, a pressure group. Add to that Facebook’s challenges in America, where it has lost a slew¹² of advertisers over its failure to police hateful content.

在一个由专制统治者统治的地区，Facebook声称会给予“自由表达的最大可能范围”。这为它赢得了大量的追随者。与人口相比，这个平台在海湾国家拥有的用户比世界上任何地方都多。它是许多阿拉伯人的主要新闻来源。一些人甚至把它归功于2011年的阿拉伯之春抗议活动。但批评人士说，自2012年上市以来，Facebook越来越关注那些为其提供访问权限的威权主义者，而对积极分子们的热情也越来越低。近几个月来，从突尼斯到伊朗，它已经剔除了数百名用户，并删除了数十万条帖子。“很多人觉得，Facebook不再是一个他们可以用来让权贵们承担责任的平台，”压力集团AccessNow的Marwa Fatafta表示。再加上Facebook在美国面临的挑战，它在美国失去了一大批广告商，原因是它未能监管恶劣内容。

1 autocrats   

n.独裁统治者( autocrat的名词复数 )；独断专行的人

参考例句：

• Still, the widespread pessimism doesn't explain the relatively high scores enjoyed by the autocrats. 不过，普遍的悲观情绪并没有解释为何独裁者得到相对较高的分数。 来自互联网

2 devastating   

adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的

参考例句：

• It is the most devastating storm in 20 years.这是20年来破坏性最大的风暴。
• Affairs do have a devastating effect on marriages.婚外情确实会对婚姻造成毁灭性的影响。

3 permanently   

adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地

参考例句：

• The accident left him permanently scarred.那次事故给他留下了永久的伤疤。
• The ship is now permanently moored on the Thames in London.该船现在永久地停泊在伦敦泰晤士河边。

4 erased   

v.擦掉( erase的过去式和过去分词 )；抹去；清除

参考例句：

• He erased the wrong answer and wrote in the right one. 他擦去了错误答案，写上了正确答案。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He removed the dogmatism from politics; he erased the party line. 他根除了政治中的教条主义，消除了政党界限。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 gore   

n.凝血，血污；v.（动物）用角撞伤，用牙刺破；缝以补裆；顶

参考例句：

• The fox lay dying in a pool of gore.狐狸倒在血泊中奄奄一息。
• Carruthers had been gored by a rhinoceros.卡拉瑟斯被犀牛顶伤了。

6 commemorating   

v.纪念，庆祝( commemorate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• He was presented with a scroll commemorating his achievements. 他被授予一幅卷轴，以表彰其所做出的成就。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The post office issued a series commemorating famous American entertainers. 邮局发行了一个纪念美国著名演艺人员的系列邮票。 来自互联网

7 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

8 authoritarians   

权力主义者，专制者，独裁者( authoritarian的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• It requires no complicated theories of a preference for authoritarians or personal seduction. 并不需要所谓偏爱独裁者或似魅力等复杂理论。
• The authors advocated immediate intervention by industry chiefs to stop authoritarians from rising up the ranks. 研究报告的撰写者们呼吁行业领导立即采取措施阻止有此种苗头的单位领导获得晋升机会。

9 hospitable   

adj.好客的；宽容的；有利的，适宜的

参考例句：

• The man is very hospitable.He keeps open house for his friends and fellow-workers.那人十分好客，无论是他的朋友还是同事，他都盛情接待。
• The locals are hospitable and welcoming.当地人热情好客。

10 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 culled   

v.挑选，剔除( cull的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The herd must be culled. 必须有选择地杀掉部分牧畜。 来自辞典例句
• The facts were culled from various sources. 这些事实是从各方收集到的。 来自辞典例句

12 slew   

v.（使）旋转；n.大量，许多

参考例句：

• He slewed the car against the side of the building.他的车滑到了大楼的一侧，抵住了。
• They dealt with a slew of other issues.他们处理了大量的其他问题。