美国国家公共电台 NPR Long Before Facebook, The KGB Spread Fake News About AIDS

 

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

Silicon¹ Valley is stepping up its campaign against disinformation. Yesterday Twitter and Facebook said they've taken down hundreds of fake accounts linked to Iran. Facebook also purged² accounts originating in Russia. Right now we're going to hear the story about actual fake news that goes back more than 25 years. In 1992, Russia's foreign intelligence director admitted that the Soviet³ Union participated in a major disinformation campaign, spreading a rumor⁴ that lingers to this day. Here's NPR's Jasmine Garsd.

JASMINE GARSD, BYLINE⁵: A few years ago, Douglas Selvage and his colleagues found an old diplomatic cable. Selvage is a historian who has done research on the former East German police, the Stasi. The cable was sent in 1985, and what it said was amazing. It's the blueprint⁶ for a fake news campaign.

DOUGLAS SELVAGE: We are carrying out a complex of active measures in connection with the appearance in recent years of a new dangerous disease in the USA, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome⁷ or AIDS.

GARSD: The Soviet Union and its allies worked to promote the idea that AIDS was an American biological weapon. Both the CIA and Russian Foreign Intelligence have since acknowledged this. The rumor was partially⁸ based on a report written in 1986 by Russian-born biophysicist Jakob Segal.

SELVAGE: And it was very successful because the local press picked up on it, and then also British newspapers picked up on it. It started to spread around the world.

GARSD: Even U.S. newspapers picked up the story, papers read specifically by African-American and gay communities, both of which were being devastated⁹ by the epidemic¹⁰. In one newspaper, the term targeted genocide was used.

SELVAGE: The KGB was citing conspiracy¹¹ theories in the United States, and then certain conspiracy theorists started citing publications associated with the KGB's disinformation campaign.

GARSD: Selvage says it points to a broader KGB tactic¹², dezinformatsiya. It's not just the planting of fake news. It's hardening people's existing beliefs and fears, eerily¹³ similar to the 2016 campaign season. Russian entities¹⁴ are said to have inserted fake stories and profiles on Facebook, stories intended to sow divisions over race and immigration.

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MARK ZUCKERBERG: We were slow in identifying the Russian information operations in 2016.

GARSD: That's Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifying before Congress. Yesterday Facebook did identify more fake accounts from Russia, and just a few weeks ago, Facebook deleted 32 other pages and profiles it deemed false. A popular one called Black Elevation¹⁵ protested racial injustice¹⁶ and police brutality¹⁷. That's the thing. The page might have been fake, but tensions between the police and the African-American community are very real, and so were the feelings back at the height of the AIDS epidemic.

ROBERT FULLILOVE: People were trying their best to make sense of a condition that came out of nowhere, and it seemed to be affecting groups that were marginalized - gay men, black and Latino men and women.

GARSD: Robert Fullilove is a professor of social medical sciences at Columbia University. He's been hearing the conspiracy theories, many of the same ones promoted by the KGB, since the epidemic began.

FULLILOVE: There is a history, a legacy¹⁸ of mistrust that made explanations like this all the more credible¹⁹, all the more likely and all the more believable.

GARSD: When AIDS showed up in the early 80s, it was less than 10 years after the infamous²⁰ Tuskegee experiments in which black men with syphilis went untreated so scientists could study how the disease ravaged²¹ the body. Russia finally acknowledged in 1992 a KGB disinformation campaign around AIDS, but Fullilove says he still hears the rumors²².

FULLILOVE: So, doc, where do you think this came from? If I heard that once, I must have heard it a thousand times, and that's not an exaggeration.

GARSD: That's the thing about fake news. Sometimes it's really hard not to believe it. Jasmine Garsd, NPR News, New York.

(SOUNDBITE OF MENAHAN STREET BAND'S "THE TRAITOR")

1 silicon   

n.硅(旧名矽)

参考例句：

• This company pioneered the use of silicon chip.这家公司开创了使用硅片的方法。
• A chip is a piece of silicon about the size of a postage stamp.芯片就是一枚邮票大小的硅片。

2 purged   

清除（政敌等）( purge的过去式和过去分词 )； 涤除（罪恶等）； 净化（心灵、风气等）； 消除（错事等）的不良影响

参考例句：

• He purged his enemies from the Party. 他把他的敌人从党内清洗出去。
• The iron in the chemical compound must be purged. 化学混合物中的铁必须清除。

3 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

4 rumor   

n.谣言，谣传，传说

参考例句：

• The rumor has been traced back to a bad man.那谣言经追查是个坏人造的。
• The rumor has taken air.谣言流传开了。

5 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。

6 blueprint   

n.蓝图，设计图，计划；vt.制成蓝图，计划

参考例句：

• All the machine parts on a blueprint must answer each other.设计图上所有的机器部件都应互相配合。
• The documents contain a blueprint for a nuclear device.文件内附有一张核装置的设计蓝图。

7 syndrome   

n.综合病症；并存特性

参考例句：

• The Institute says that an unidentified virus is to blame for the syndrome. 该研究所表示,引起这种综合症的是一种尚未确认的病毒。
• Results indicated that 11 fetuses had Down syndrome. 结果表明有11个胎儿患有唐氏综合征。

8 partially   

adv.部分地，从某些方面讲

参考例句：

• The door was partially concealed by the drapes.门有一部分被门帘遮住了。
• The police managed to restore calm and the curfew was partially lifted.警方设法恢复了平静，宵禁部分解除。

9 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。

10 epidemic   

n.流行病；盛行；adj.流行性的，流传极广的

参考例句：

• That kind of epidemic disease has long been stamped out.那种传染病早已绝迹。
• The authorities tried to localise the epidemic.当局试图把流行病限制在局部范围。

11 conspiracy   

n.阴谋，密谋，共谋

参考例句：

• The men were found guilty of conspiracy to murder.这些人被裁决犯有阴谋杀人罪。
• He claimed that it was all a conspiracy against him.他声称这一切都是一场针对他的阴谋。

12 tactic   

n.战略，策略；adj.战术的，有策略的

参考例句：

• Reducing prices is a common sales tactic.降价是常用的销售策略。
• She had often used the tactic of threatening to resign.她惯用以辞职相威胁的手法。

13 eerily   

adv.引起神秘感或害怕地

参考例句：

• It was nearly mid-night and eerily dark all around her. 夜深了，到处是一片黑黝黝的怪影。 来自汉英文学 - 散文英译
• The vast volcanic slope was eerily reminiscent of a lunar landscape. 开阔的火山坡让人心生怪异地联想起月球的地貌。 来自辞典例句

14 entities   

实体对像； 实体，独立存在体，实际存在物( entity的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Our newspaper and our printing business form separate corporate entities. 我们的报纸和印刷业形成相对独立的企业实体。
• The North American continent is made up of three great structural entities. 北美大陆是由三个构造单元组成的。

15 elevation   

n.高度；海拔；高地；上升；提高

参考例句：

• The house is at an elevation of 2,000 metres.那幢房子位于海拔两千米的高处。
• His elevation to the position of General Manager was announced yesterday.昨天宣布他晋升总经理职位。

16 injustice   

n.非正义，不公正，不公平，侵犯（别人的）权利

参考例句：

• They complained of injustice in the way they had been treated.他们抱怨受到不公平的对待。
• All his life he has been struggling against injustice.他一生都在与不公正现象作斗争。

17 brutality   

n.野蛮的行为，残忍，野蛮

参考例句：

• The brutality of the crime has appalled the public. 罪行之残暴使公众大为震惊。
• a general who was infamous for his brutality 因残忍而恶名昭彰的将军

18 legacy   

n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西

参考例句：

• They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
• He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。

19 credible   

adj.可信任的，可靠的

参考例句：

• The news report is hardly credible.这则新闻报道令人难以置信。
• Is there a credible alternative to the nuclear deterrent?是否有可以取代核威慑力量的可靠办法？

20 infamous   

adj.声名狼藉的，臭名昭著的，邪恶的

参考例句：

• He was infamous for his anti-feminist attitudes.他因反对女性主义而声名狼藉。
• I was shocked by her infamous behaviour.她的无耻行径令我震惊。

21 ravaged   

毁坏( ravage的过去式和过去分词 )； 蹂躏； 劫掠； 抢劫

参考例句：

• a country ravaged by civil war 遭受内战重创的国家
• The whole area was ravaged by forest fires. 森林火灾使整个地区荒废了。

22 rumors   

n.传闻( rumor的名词复数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷v.传闻( rumor的第三人称单数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷

参考例句：

• Rumors have it that the school was burned down. 有谣言说学校给烧掉了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Rumors of a revolt were afloat. 叛变的谣言四起。 来自《简明英汉词典》