华盛顿邮报 Facebook被爆雇佣公关公司抹黑TikTok(3)

So, tell me about what we know about the aim of this campaign, this, like, "Let's take down TikTok" plan.

那么，跟我说说我们对这次活动的目的了解多少，比如“让我们拿下TikTok”计划。

So, we got e-mails actually from inside Targeted Victory.

我们收到了来自Targeted Victory内部的邮件。

So we got a really intimate look at their whole playbook. And there were a couple parts of it.

所以我们对他们的整个剧本有了一个很深入的了解。 其中有几个部分。

One was they wanted to get every piece of negative press they could about TikTok from the nation's newspapers, right?

一是他们想从国内的报纸上得到关于TikTok的所有负面报道，对吧?

So local, regional news outlets¹, TV stations, radio stations, newspapers, anything that was negative written about TikTok they wanted to find and hopefully promote to other news outlets.

因此，地方新闻机构、电视台、广播电台、报纸，以及任何他们想找到并希望推广到其他新闻机构的关于TikTok的负面报道。

Targeted Victory has P.R. people in lots of different media markets and cities across the country, and you could see, from these e-mails, they were saying,

Targeted Victory在全国很多不同的媒体市场和城市都有公关人员，你可以从这些邮件中看到，他们在说，

"Okay, we're seeing this new bad story about TikTok crop up here.

“好吧，我们在这里看到了一个关于TikTok的坏消息。

Can we portal it over to this other city and really kind of make it go viral there?"

我们能不能把它传送到另一个城市，让它在那里像病毒一样传播?”

And that all is fairly common in this kind of, like, dirt-throwing campaign, but the stuff that really sort of set it apart for me was,

这在这种，扔垃圾的运动中是很常见的，但真正让我与众不同的是，

they were also trying to spotlight² and promote these totally dubious³ TikTok trends, stuff like Slap a Teacher, like, there being this big, you know, trend on TikTok about just going wild in schools.

他们还试图聚焦和推广这些完全可疑的TikTok趋势，比如“打老师”，TikTok上有一个很大的趋势，就是在学校里疯狂。

Wait, wait. Sorry. Can I talk a little bit more about this Slap-a-Teacher thing?

等等, 等等。抱歉。 我能再谈谈打老师这件事吗?

Because I remember hearing about this.

因为我记得听说过这件事。

Yeah, so, the story that Targeted Victory was promoting and that was getting into local news outlets was that kids were going on TikTok

对，所以Targeted Victory所宣传的故事，当地新闻媒体也在报道，孩子们都在使用TikTok ，

and they were slapping their teachers and taking video of it and just going wild

他们扇老师耳光，还拍下视频，简直疯了，

and it was going viral and there was this huge trend about it, which, you know, played into all of these fears about TikTok and crazy teens.

然后视频就像病毒一样传播开来，形成了一个巨大的热门话题趋势，你知道，这加剧了人们对TikTok和疯狂青少年的恐惧。

But it was totally bogus. Like, this was a trend that wasn't actually going -- trending on TikTok.

但这完全是伪造的。 也就是说，这是一个实际上并没有在TikTok上流行的趋势。

All it started was as a rumor⁴ on Facebook.

一切都始于Facebook上的一个谣言。

It was one post on Facebook of a guy sort of, you know, making up stuff, and they ran with it.

这是一个人在Facebook上的一个帖子，你知道，有点像，瞎编的东西，然后他们就照做了。

And it became this whole news story about, you know, teens going wild on TikTok, but it was never really a thing until somebody had started talking about it on Facebook.

这就成了青少年在TikTok上疯玩的整个新闻故事，但直到有人开始在Facebook上谈论这件事，它才真正成为一个话题。

You saw this, too, with Devious⁵ Licks, where it just totally got blown out of proportion.

你也看到了，在“恶魔偷窃”中，它完全被夸大了。

And, you know, there are trends on TikTok, and it's a huge platform.

你知道，TikTok上有一些热门话题趋势，TikTok是一个巨大的平台。

There's crazy stuff that happens on there, just like there's crazy stuff that happens on Facebook.

那里有很多疯狂的事情，就像Facebook上也有很多疯狂的事情。

But what was especially galling⁶ here was that Meta was trying to weaponize these bogus trends

但尤其让人恼火的是，Meta试图把这些伪造的热门话题趋势变成武器，

and get people upset about them and mobilize the anger of parents and local lawmakers to take down TikTok for some of the same things that Meta has been criticized for before.

让人们对这些趋势感到不安，并动员家长和当地议员，让他们愤怒，从而让TikTok因和Meta之前被批评过的一些一样的事情而下架。

1 outlets   

n.出口( outlet的名词复数 )；经销店；插座；廉价经销店

参考例句：

• The dumping of foreign cotton blocked outlets for locally grown cotton. 外国棉花的倾销阻滞了当地生产的棉花的销路。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They must find outlets for their products. 他们必须为自己的产品寻找出路。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

2 spotlight   

n.公众注意的中心，聚光灯，探照灯，视听，注意，醒目

参考例句：

• This week the spotlight is on the world of fashion.本周引人瞩目的是时装界。
• The spotlight followed her round the stage.聚光灯的光圈随着她在舞台上转。

3 dubious   

adj.怀疑的，无把握的；有问题的，靠不住的

参考例句：

• What he said yesterday was dubious.他昨天说的话很含糊。
• He uses some dubious shifts to get money.他用一些可疑的手段去赚钱。

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 devious   

adj.不坦率的，狡猾的；迂回的，曲折的

参考例句：

• Susan is a devious person and we can't depend on her.苏姗是个狡猾的人，我们不能依赖她。
• He is a man who achieves success by devious means.他这个人通过不正当手段获取成功。

6 galling   

adj.难堪的,使烦恼的,使焦躁的

参考例句：

• It was galling to have to apologize to a man she hated. 令人恼火的是得向她憎恶的男人道歉。
• The insolence in the fellow's eye was galling. 这家伙的傲慢目光令人恼怒。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹