剑桥分析公司还影响了非洲的选举

Cambridge Analytica Influenced African Elections

The data mining company Cambridge Analytica has come under criticism recently. In the U.S., it is accused of taking information from 50 million Facebook accounts without users’ permission. The company then reportedly used the information to create campaign messages for then-presidential candidate Donald Trump¹.

The government of Brazil is also investigating Cambridge Analytica for possible privacy violations².

Now, new reports say Cambridge Analytica played a role in African elections. In some countries, it may have exploited existing conflict.

South African election violence

The company first became involved in Africa during the general election in South Africa in 1994. That year, the apartheid government ended and Nelson Mandela won the presidency³.

But the months leading up to the election saw political and ethnic⁴ conflict. The Inkatha Freedom Party, which represented South Africa’s largest ethnic population – the Zulu — clashed with the African National Congress (ANC).

The conflict led to violence before the election, said Martin Plaut, senior research fellow at the University of London's Institute of Commonwealth⁵ Studies.

A political party hired Cambridge Analytica to lower the election violence, the company's website said. It does not say which party hired Cambridge Analytica. And the company’s exact role has not been confirmed. However, violence decreased during and after the vote for Mandela and the ANC.

Involvement in Kenya, Nigeria

More recently, Cambridge Analytica worked with Kenya's ruling Jubilee⁶ Party. The firm designed a campaign plan using interviews with nearly 50,000 future voters over three months.

In an undercover video broadcast this week on Britain's Channel 4 News, Cambridge Analytica executive Mark Turnbull said the company and its parent group, SCL Group, ran the Kenyatta campaign. Turnbull claimed Cambridge Analytica created the campaign marketing⁷, wrote speeches, and designed the party’s image.

The company has been accused of creating social media videos to exploit some voters’ fears. The videos warned that a victory by opposition⁸ leader Raila Odinga would lead to disease, starvation and terrorism.

Cambridge Analytica denied involvement in the videos or negative campaigning in Kenya.

The company was also reportedly involved in Nigerian elections. The Guardian⁹ reported Wednesday that Israeli hackers¹¹ provided Cambridge Analytica with President Muhammadu Buhari's personal emails.

Buhari was running against then-president Goodluck Jonathan. A wealthy Nigerian paid Cambridge Analytica $2.8 million to find damaging information about Buhari as part of an attack campaign, The Guardian reported.

The e-mails included information about Buhari’s health and medical records.

Detailed¹² research

Data research companies such as Cambridge Analytica provide information to governments and political parties, Plaut said, to influence "people in the middle." These people hold moderate views and can often be persuaded by emotional appeals.

Data research companies identify whom to target and how to create messages that play on their hopes and fears, not facts, Plaut said.

Julie Owono is executive director of Internet Without Borders, a group that supports online freedom and privacy. She told VOA's French to Africa service that her organization has been warning about the dangers of letting companies like Facebook collect the personal data of billions of people around the world.

She says countries that do not protect data can be exploited by companies and governments that do not have users’ best interests in mind.

Protecting democracy from the Internet

African voters, Plaut said, "are as open to manipulation as any voter in the world." He added that while they are intelligent voters who know politicians create messages for their own needs, they still can be influenced by the effects of disinformation.

The solution, says Plaut, is international management.

"The African Union should be much more robust¹³ in insisting on its observers going to see elections and spending a good deal of time there, not just five minutes before the vote takes place," Plaut said.

He added that governments should release information, months in advance of elections, which give the public more ability to identify fake news, and what their governments have done to ensure a free and fair process.

I’m Phil Dierking.

Words in This Story

apartheid - n. a former social system in South Africa in which black people and people from other racial groups did not have the same political and economic rights as white people and were forced to live separately from white people?

data - n. facts or information used usually to calculate, analyze¹⁴, or plan something?

digital - adj. using or characterized by computer technology?

exploit - v. to use (someone or something) in a way that helps you unfairly?

hacker¹⁰ - n. a person who secretly gets access to a computer system in order to get information, cause damage, etc. : a person who hacks¹⁵ into a computer system?

insist - v. to demand that something happen or that someone do something?

manipulate - v. to deal with or control (someone or something) in a clever and usually unfair or selfish way?

robust - adj. strong and healthy?

undercover - adj. done or working in a secret way in order to catch criminals or collect information

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 violations   

违反( violation的名词复数 )； 冒犯； 违反（行为、事例）； 强奸

参考例句：

• This is one of the commonest traffic violations. 这是常见的违反交通规则之例。
• These violations of the code must cease forthwith. 这些违犯法规的行为必须立即停止。

3 presidency   

n.总统(校长，总经理)的职位(任期)

参考例句：

• Roosevelt was elected four times to the presidency of the United States.罗斯福连续当选四届美国总统。
• Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency.两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。

4 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

5 commonwealth   

n.共和国，联邦，共同体

参考例句：

• He is the chairman of the commonwealth of artists.他是艺术家协会的主席。
• Most of the members of the Commonwealth are nonwhite.英联邦的许多成员国不是白人国家。

6 jubilee   

n.周年纪念；欢乐

参考例句：

• They had a big jubilee to celebrate the victory.他们举行盛大的周年纪念活动以祝贺胜利。
• Every Jubilee,to take the opposite case,has served a function.反过来说，历次君主巡幸，都曾起到某种作用。

7 marketing   

n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西

参考例句：

• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
• He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。

8 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

9 guardian   

n.监护人；守卫者，保护者

参考例句：

• The form must be signed by the child's parents or guardian. 这张表格须由孩子的家长或监护人签字。
• The press is a guardian of the public weal. 报刊是公共福利的卫护者。

10 hacker   

n.能盗用或偷改电脑中信息的人，电脑黑客

参考例句：

• The computer hacker wrote that he was from Russia.这个计算机黑客自称他来自俄罗斯。
• This site was attacked by a hacker last week.上周这个网站被黑客攻击了。

11 hackers   

n.计算机迷( hacker的名词复数 )；私自存取或篡改电脑资料者，电脑“黑客”

参考例句：

• They think of viruses that infect an organization from the outside.They envision hackers breaking into their information vaults. 他们考虑来自外部的感染公司的病毒，他们设想黑客侵入到信息宝库中。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Arranging a meeting with the hackers took weeks againoff-again email exchanges. 通过几星期电子邮件往来安排见面，他们最终同意了。 来自互联网

12 detailed   

adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的

参考例句：

• He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
• A detailed list of our publications is available on request.我们的出版物有一份详细的目录备索。

13 robust   

adj.强壮的，强健的，粗野的，需要体力的，浓的

参考例句：

• She is too tall and robust.她个子太高，身体太壮。
• China wants to keep growth robust to reduce poverty and avoid job losses,AP commented.美联社评论道，中国希望保持经济强势增长，以减少贫困和失业状况。

14 analyze   

vt.分析，解析 (=analyse)

参考例句：

• We should analyze the cause and effect of this event.我们应该分析这场事变的因果。
• The teacher tried to analyze the cause of our failure.老师设法分析我们失败的原因。

15 hacks   

黑客

参考例句：

• But there are hacks who take advantage of people like Teddy. 但有些无赖会占类似泰迪的人的便宜。 来自电影对白
• I want those two hacks back here, right now. 我要那两个雇工回到这儿，现在就回。 来自互联网