美国国家公共电台 NPR Twitter's Dual Challenges: Taming The Trolls, Attracting More Users

Twitter's Dual¹ Challenges: Taming The Trolls, Attracting More Users 

play pause stop mute unmute max volume 00:0004:53repeat repeat off Update Required To play the media you will need to either update your browser² to a recent version or update your Flash plugin. STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: 

This presidential election year has tested the limits of free speech on Twitter. It's a prime political platform for Donald Trump³ and also for the correspondents covering both presidential candidates and for the purveyors of hate speech. Just the other day on this program, we talked with Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg, who has been targeted by thousands and thousands of anti-Semitic tweets. Emily Bell is here to give us rather more than 140 characters about the social media service. She is director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism⁵. She's in New York. Welcome to the program.

EMILY BELL: Thank you, Steve.

INSKEEP: How bad is the quality of debate on Twitter right now?

BELL: Well, as with all of these things, that depends. If you are targeted by trolls, it's a pretty terrible and intolerable place to be. If you're involved in some of the more enlightened back and forths, it can actually be a remarkably⁶ powerful and exhilarating tool. The problem Twitter has is that the former has certainly become perceived to be more prevalent than the latter.

INSKEEP: I guess we should explain for people who aren't on Twitter or aren't on it all the time. In Facebook, you can kind of create your own world and have your own friends and keep other people out of it. Twitter, you can - you can work on that, but the opening precept⁷ is that it's open to everybody. Everybody sees what you write, and almost anybody can fire - fire shots at you.

BELL: That's right. It's really a broadcast platform, and it was designed as such right from the outset. The founders⁸ said, we want something that connects the world. And if you look at the trajectory⁹ of that versus¹⁰ Facebook, Facebook started from a place of pretty profound control. You know, it really tightly controlled how it grew. It's very restrictive in terms of how you represent yourself on there. And I think that, you know, this idea that Twitter was a more broadcast platform, was a freer platform has ultimately caused it many more commercial problems as it's - as it's evolved.

INSKEEP: Because they have 300 million users, but they're actually having trouble making money with 300 million people. What - does something need to change about the debate on Twitter?

BELL: Well, I think that it's certainly the case that they have not properly tackled this idea of hate speech and, if you like, sort of, you know, coarsening of discourse¹¹, which, actually, you know, it - it can be framed as this is a free-speech problem. But the thing with all kind of - as we all know, you know, if you allow very free speech, what you end up doing is actually chilling the rights or the - or the possibility that others will join in.

And that's really what's - what's happened on Twitter. And it's also, you know, just not a great commercial environment, even when it's very powerful. You know, my belief is it is an iteration of the free press. But like previous iterations of the free press, things that make it very effective also make it, you know, slightly uncomfortable for advertisers.

INSKEEP: Although, is this - is this hard for Twitter to do here? They are a private company. They can limit speech if they want to. They have guidelines prohibiting hateful speech or harassment¹². But at the same time, who really gets to judge that?

BELL: Well, I think that this is a core problem, which is, as you say, you know, kind of that it's platform company that says, well, we don't want to edit or stop anyone. That's - that's where they started out. That's not where they are now. Tens of thousands of, for instance, ISIS-related accounts have been closed down and purged¹³ off the platform. The problem is that they don't have much control about who, then, opens an account.

And we even have the phenomenon in certain parts of the world where you have these troll factories of the ultimate - the automatic creation of often fake profiles, which then sort of drown out speech that they don't like. This is a phenomenon that's been observed in Russia.

INSKEEP: Sent horrid¹⁴ messages to people again and again and again. That's what you're saying.

BELL: Yeah, exactly. And I think that that's something that, you know, that they're working hard to stop. But when the - when the principal design of your platform is about freedom and about anybody being able - anybody - everybody being on an equal playing field, really it's - it's difficult to roll back from that.

INSKEEP: In a few seconds, is this debate, even its more horrid corners, revealing something about all of us?

BELL: I think that Twitter is an incredibly powerful cultural phenomenon, and I would hate to see it go away or be diminished, but I think that there's a difference between diminishment and really tidying it up.

INSKEEP: But are we learning something about us all from being...

BELL: Yeah, I think - you know, I think that it is a mirror, if you like, to humanity. And unfortunately - but unfortunately, it's a slightly distorted mirror where those who shout loudest often get heard most. But it's also a great purveyor⁴ of humanity and jokes and wonderful kind of bits of news as well as - as well as vital and urgent stuff, as well.

INSKEEP: OK, Emily Bell of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism, thanks very much.

BELL: Thank you.

1 dual   

adj.双的；二重的，二元的

参考例句：

• The people's Republic of China does not recognize dual nationality for any Chinese national.中华人民共和国不承认中国公民具有双重国籍。
• He has dual role as composer and conductor.他兼作曲家及指挥的双重身分。

2 browser   

n.浏览者

参考例句：

• View edits in a web browser.在浏览器中看编辑的效果。
• I think my browser has a list of shareware links.我想在浏览器中会有一系列的共享软件链接。

3 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。

4 purveyor   

n.承办商，伙食承办商

参考例句：

• Silence, purveyor of gossip, do not spread that report. 快别那样说，新闻记者阁下，别散布那个消息。 来自互联网
• Teaching purpose: To comprehensively understand the role function and consciousness composition of a news purveyor. 教学目的：全面深入的理解新闻传播者的角色功能和意识构成。 来自互联网

5 journalism   

n.新闻工作，报业

参考例句：

• He's a teacher but he does some journalism on the side.他是教师，可还兼职做一些新闻工作。
• He had an aptitude for journalism.他有从事新闻工作的才能。

6 remarkably   

ad.不同寻常地，相当地

参考例句：

• I thought she was remarkably restrained in the circumstances. 我认为她在那种情况下非常克制。
• He made a remarkably swift recovery. 他康复得相当快。

7 precept   

n.戒律；格言

参考例句：

• It occurs to me that example is always more efficacious than precept.我想到身教重于言教。
• The son had well profited by the precept and example of the father.老太爷的言传身教早已使他儿子获益无穷。

8 founders   

n.创始人( founder的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He was one of the founders of the university's medical faculty. 他是该大学医学院的创建人之一。 来自辞典例句
• The founders of our religion made this a cornerstone of morality. 我们宗教的创始人把这看作是道德的基石。 来自辞典例句

9 trajectory   

n.弹道，轨道

参考例句：

• It is not difficult to sketch the subsequent trajectory.很容易描绘出它们最终的轨迹。
• The path followed by a projectile is called its trajectory.抛物体所循的路径称为它的轨道。

10 versus   

prep.以…为对手，对；与…相比之下

参考例句：

• The big match tonight is England versus Spain.今晚的大赛是英格兰对西班牙。
• The most exciting game was Harvard versus Yale.最富紧张刺激的球赛是哈佛队对耶鲁队。

11 discourse   

n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述

参考例句：

• We'll discourse on the subject tonight.我们今晚要谈论这个问题。
• He fell into discourse with the customers who were drinking at the counter.他和站在柜台旁的酒客谈了起来。

12 harassment   

n.骚扰，扰乱，烦恼，烦乱

参考例句：

• She often got telephone harassment at night these days.这些天她经常在夜晚受到电话骚扰。
• The company prohibits any form of harassment.公司禁止任何形式的骚扰行为。

13 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。

14 horrid   

adj.可怕的；令人惊恐的；恐怖的；极讨厌的

参考例句：

• I'm not going to the horrid dinner party.我不打算去参加这次讨厌的宴会。
• The medicine is horrid and she couldn't get it down.这种药很难吃，她咽不下去。