VOA慢速英语2020--研究称社交媒体容易被操纵

Study: Social Media Easily Manipulated

New research shows that social media companies differ in their ability to stop social media manipulation.

The NATO Strategic Communications Center of Excellence¹ carried out the study. Two American senators took part.

Researchers from the center, based in Riga, Latvia, paid three Russian companies for fake social media engagement. For around $368, researchers got 337,768 fake likes, views and shares of posts on social media, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and TikTok.

Some of those fake likes, views, and shares appeared on the verified accounts of Senators Chuck Grassley and Chris Murphy. Verified accounts are those that social media companies have confirmed as owned and controlled by the individual or group named on the account.

Grassley's office confirmed that the Republican from Iowa took part in the study.

Murphy, a Democrat² from the state of Connecticut, said in a statement that he agreed to take part in the study. The senator said it is important to understand that even verified accounts are at risk of manipulation. It is easy to use social media as a tool to interfere³ with election campaigns and incite⁴ political unrest, Murphy said.

"It's clear that social media companies are not doing enough to combat misinformation and paid manipulation...," he said.

NATO StratCom director Janis Sarts told The Associated Press that social media manipulation hurts business markets and is a threat to national security.

Sarts said that fake accounts are being employed to trick computer programs that decide what information is popular.

"That in turn deepens divisions and thus weakens us as a society," he explained.

More than 98 percent of the fake engagements - likes, views, shares - remained active after four weeks, researchers found. And 97 percent of the accounts they reported for fake activity were still active five days later.

NATO StratCom did a similar test in 2019 with the accounts of European officials. They found that Twitter is now taking down fake content faster and Facebook has made it harder to create fake accounts.

"We've spent years strengthening our detection systems against fake engagement with a focus on stopping the accounts that have the potential to cause the most harm," a Facebook company spokesperson said in an email.

But YouTube and Facebook-owned Instagram remain open to risk, researchers said, and TikTok appeared "defenseless."

Researchers said that for the study they pushed content that was not political. They wanted to avoid any possible interference in the U.S. election.

So, the researchers posted pictures of dogs and food.

Ben Scott is executive director of Reset⁵.tech, a group that works to fight digital threats to democracy. Scott said the investigation⁶ showed how easy it is to manipulate political communication and how little social media companies have done to fix the problems.

In an email to the Associated Press, Yoel Roth, Twitter's head of site integrity described the issue is an "evolving challenge."

Roth added that the study shows the big "effort that Twitter has made to improve the health of the public conversation."

YouTube said it has put in place safety measures to find fake activity on its site. It noted⁷ that more than 2 million videos were removed from the site recently for breaking its policies.

TikTok said it removes content or accounts that support fake engagement or other untrue information that may cause harm.

Words in This Story

fake – adj. not true or real

engagement – n. the act or state of being involved with something

content – n. the ideas, facts, or images that are in a book, article, speech, movie, etc.

detection -- n. the act or process of discovering, finding, or noticing something

1 excellence   

n.优秀，杰出，(pl.)优点，美德

参考例句：

• His art has reached a high degree of excellence.他的艺术已达到炉火纯青的地步。
• My performance is far below excellence.我的表演离优秀还差得远呢。

2 democrat   

n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员

参考例句：

• The Democrat and the Public criticized each other.民主党人和共和党人互相攻击。
• About two years later,he was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter.大约两年后，他被民主党人杰米卡特击败。

3 interfere   

v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰

参考例句：

• If we interfere, it may do more harm than good.如果我们干预的话，可能弊多利少。
• When others interfere in the affair,it always makes troubles. 别人一卷入这一事件，棘手的事情就来了。

4 incite   

v.引起，激动，煽动

参考例句：

• I wanted to point out he was a very good speaker, and could incite a crowd.我想说明他曾是一个非常出色的演讲家，非常会调动群众的情绪。
• Just a few words will incite him into action.他只需几句话一将，就会干。

5 reset   

v.重新安排，复位；n.重新放置；重放之物

参考例句：

• As soon as you arrive at your destination,step out of the aircraft and reset your wristwatch.你一到达目的地，就走出飞机并重新设置手表时间。
• He is recovering from an operation to reset his arm.他做了一个手臂复位手术，正在恢复。

6 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

7 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。