VOA常速英语2020--特朗普支持者们在社交媒体上的挣扎

It's a frustrating¹ time for many Americans wanting to share thoughts online about the recent election. Twitter and Facebook have slapped warnings on some messages, and in a few cases blocked postings that make false claims about the election process and the results. Now they are finding other places to go online. One of them is Parlor² which promises it won't censor³ anything. It is now the most downloaded app on the apple itunes store, and popular with supporters of president Donald Trump⁴. We have gained well over four million new accounts in the last several days, maybe five, I'm losing track. The rise of Parlor comes with Americans divided over whether they want social media firms to do more to keep their sites free from misinformation and calls for violence, or should the Internet be a place for all speech. Enter Parlor from the French word parler to speak. Prominent conservatives have flocked to the Nevada-based platform and some are calling for people to leave Twitter and Facebook for Parlor. I think there's a lack of trust and when they hear that there is somebody out there who says we are an unbiased neutral free speech platform. They're willing to at least give it a shot at a certain point.

对于很多想要在网上分享自己对于最近选举的看法的美国人来说，这是一个令人沮丧的时刻。推特和脸书已经在一些信息上发出警告，并且在一些情况下屏蔽了对大选过程和结果作出虚假声明的帖子。他们目前正在寻找其他的上网空间。Parlor作为其中一款软件，它承诺不会审查任何东西。Parlor目前是苹果itunes商店中下载量最大的应用程序，深受唐纳德·特朗普总统支持者的青睐。在过去几天里，我们的平台新增了超过400万的新账户，也许是500万，我无法追踪到详细数据。Parlor的兴起源于美国人在一些问题上的分歧，即美国民众是希望社交媒体公司加大监管力度以避免网站充斥着不实信息和暴力呼吁，还是希望互联网成为广开言路的圣地。Parlor之名来源于法语单词“parler”，意为说话。重要的保守派人士们纷纷涌向这个总部位于内达华州的社交媒体平台，一些人呼吁人们离开推特和脸书去Parlor。我认为人们缺少信任，当他们听到有人说我们是一个无偏见的中立的言论自由平台时，他们至少在某一时刻愿意尝试一下。

Much of the conversation on Parlor echoes president Donald Trump's unsupported claim that the November 3rd election was stolen by democrats⁵ through massive voter fraud. There are calls for action. Demonstrations⁶ are being planned. Sometimes users cross the line, an Arkansas police chief used Parlor to urge violence against democrats. He claimed were preventing the reelection of Donald Trump. When the posts appeared in news stories, his public account was removed and he was forced to resign. While the Parlor algorithm does not promote posts to keep users engaged. The company says it is serious about its commitment to free speech and does not block extremist content. The fact that we don't block out the content from various extremists does not mean that our goal is to further all of those views, right? What we are planning to do is give the widest freedom possible so that people can have a full discussion. That is not much different from the founding missions of Facebook and Twitter, but the major Internet firms criticized for keeping people engaged by suggesting content that is more extreme have increasingly taken steps to curtail⁷ the spread of misinformation, and then came Parlor. It potentially suggests that if platforms do try and steer⁸ people away from these echo chambers⁹, steer people away from what they want that people will just migrate elsewhere, right? That's it's a reminder¹⁰ that as powerful as these platforms are, and is overwhelmingly unpopular as they are. And there are, it's, it is not a monopoly. It's too soon to know whether Parlor will have lasting¹¹ appeal, but for now as the US grapples with the results of the 2020 election, Parlor has carved out a unique digital hangout. Matt Dibble for voa news San Francisco

Parlor平台上发表的大部分言论都与唐纳德·特朗普总统的毫无根据的说法相呼应着，特朗普总统认为民主党人士通过大规模的选民欺诈窃取了11月3日的选举。有些用户呼吁采取行动。示威活动正在计划中。有时用户会越界，一位阿肯色州的警察局长利用Parlor平台呼吁对民主党人使用暴力。他声称这是在阻止唐纳德·特朗普的连任。这些帖子出现在新闻报道中，他的公共账户被删除，他本人也被辞退。而Parlor算法并没有通过推送帖子来保持用户的参与度。该公司表示，它对言论自由的承诺是认真的，不会屏蔽极端主义内容。事实上，我们没有屏蔽各种极端分子发布的内容，这并不意味着我们的目标是去进一步推广这些观点，对吧？我们计划做的是尽可能给予用户最广泛的自由，以便人们能够进行充分的讨论。这与脸书和推特的创始使命没有太大不同。主要互联网公司曾经通过推荐极端内容以吸引人们的注意力的行径广受批判，这些公司现在已经开始越来越多地采取措施来遏制错误信息的传播，Parlor也就随即而生。它可能在暗示这些互联网巨头们，如果平台真的试图引导人们远离这些回音室，引导人们远离想要的东西，那人们只会迁移到别处，对吧？这是一个提醒，这些平台不管多么强大，也会受到人们的广泛厌弃。还有，Parlor不是在垄断。要了解Parlor是否有着持久的吸引力还为时过早，但就目前而言，美国正在努力应对2020年大选的投票结果，Parlor为此打造出一个独特的数字娱乐空间。美国之音新闻，马特·迪布尔旧金山报道。

1 frustrating   

adj.产生挫折的，使人沮丧的，令人泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的现在分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's frustrating to have to wait so long. 要等这么长时间，真令人懊恼。
• It was a demeaning and ultimately frustrating experience. 那是一次有失颜面并且令人沮丧至极的经历。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 parlor   

n.店铺，营业室；会客室，客厅

参考例句：

• She was lying on a small settee in the parlor.她躺在客厅的一张小长椅上。
• Is there a pizza parlor in the neighborhood?附近有没有比萨店？

3 censor   

n./vt.审查，审查员；删改

参考例句：

• The film has not been viewed by the censor.这部影片还未经审查人员审查。
• The play was banned by the censor.该剧本被查禁了。

4 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。

5 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 demonstrations   

证明( demonstration的名词复数 )； 表明； 表达； 游行示威

参考例句：

• Lectures will be interspersed with practical demonstrations. 讲课中将不时插入实际示范。
• The new military government has banned strikes and demonstrations. 新的军人政府禁止罢工和示威活动。

7 curtail   

vt.截短，缩短；削减

参考例句：

• The government hopes to curtail public spending.政府希望缩减公共事业开支。
• The minister had to curtail his visit.部长不得不缩短访问日期。

8 steer   

vt.驾驶，为…操舵；引导；vi.驾驶

参考例句：

• If you push the car, I'll steer it.如果你来推车，我就来驾车。
• It's no use trying to steer the boy into a course of action that suits you.想说服这孩子按你的方式行事是徒劳的。

9 chambers   

n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅

参考例句：

• The body will be removed into one of the cold storage chambers. 尸体将被移到一个冷冻间里。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Mr Chambers's readable book concentrates on the middle passage: the time Ransome spent in Russia. Chambers先生的这本值得一看的书重点在中间：Ransome在俄国的那几年。 来自互联网

10 reminder   

n.提醒物，纪念品；暗示，提示

参考例句：

• I have had another reminder from the library.我又收到图书馆的催还单。
• It always took a final reminder to get her to pay her share of the rent.总是得发给她一份最后催缴通知，她才付应该交的房租。

11 lasting   

adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持

参考例句：

• The lasting war debased the value of the dollar.持久的战争使美元贬值。
• We hope for a lasting settlement of all these troubles.我们希望这些纠纷能获得永久的解决。