美国国家公共电台 NPR Senate Committee Vents About Hijacking Of Big Tech For Information War

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Top executives from Facebook and Twitter are here in town today with some important meetings. They're going before House and Senate committees on Capitol Hill, and they will be grilled¹ again about what social media companies could have done to stop Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election and what they're doing now about Russian propaganda ahead of the midterms. NPR's Tim Mak will be covering the hearing, and he's with us in the studio. Hey, Tim.

TIM MAK, BYLINE²: Hey there.

MARTIN: So as I mentioned, these companies have been in this situation before answering these kinds of questions. In the past, they've been reluctant to say they could have done more to prevent their platforms from being abused. Are they - do you expect them to say something different today?

MAK: Yeah. I think there's an increasing sense amongst big tech firms that this is a serious problem, that an open society and social media platforms can be actually used against American democracy. Facebook, for example, is expected to emphasize how they're doubling the number of people working on safety and security issues to more than 20,000. And they're going to talk about how they're collaborating³ with law enforcement increasingly in the months ahead. But there's one firm that's not going to be there at all, and that's Google, which has declined to send founder⁴ Larry Page or its CEO to appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee today. And in his place, there's going be a little chair there, a little sign - a bit of Washington theater - as there is bipartisan consensus⁵ from Republicans and Democrats⁶ on this committee that their offer, Google's offer, to send its chief legal officer is insufficient⁷.

MARTIN: I mean, this is really what the central tension has been about, how these companies define themselves, right? Are they just a platform for people to express their views, or do they have a responsibility to curate them? How did they come down on this?

MAK: Yeah. I mean, Facebook in particular is trying to make a good faith effort towards transparency and addressing some concerns from lawmakers and the public. And a lot of this is driven by the changing nature of the threat and how serious it now appears and has become. There's no sign that this threat is diminishing. In fact, just in the past month, we had Microsoft, Facebook and Twitter all announce that they had discovered and disrupted foreign operations. Iran was revealed to be a new player in worldwide disinformation campaigns. And on top of this, we found that there was a new Russian disinformation campaign and apparent hacking⁸ attempts. Big tech firms are really on red alert.

MARTIN: So these threats keep popping up and these companies say that they're equipped to manage them.

MAK: Well, that's the thing about it. Some of these issues can be addressed by the companies themselves. Some of them can be addressed by regulations that Congress might propose, such as online ad disclosures or things like new sanctions against foreign actors. But a lot of this has to do with people themselves. It's a multidimensional threat. It involves everything from hacking emails to bot networks online to disinformation campaigns to election infrastructure⁹ security. And a lot of this can be dealt with folks who are just listening to the radio right now, and that's doing things like securing their emails with multifactor authentication¹⁰ and being super judicious¹¹ about the kinds of information they view online, whether or not they double check their sources, whether or not they're looking at news sources that have credibility and a long track record of being established. It's a really complicated problem. It involves state governments, big tech firms, Congress and people being responsible themselves.

MARTIN: And us. You're saying it's on us. All right. NPR's Tim Mak, thanks so much. We appreciate it.

MAK: Thanks a lot.

1 grilled   

adj. 烤的, 炙过的, 有格子的 动词grill的过去式和过去分词形式

参考例句：

• He was grilled for two hours before the police let him go. 他被严厉盘查了两个小时后，警察才放他走。
• He was grilled until he confessed. 他被严加拷问，直到他承认为止。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 collaborating   

合作( collaborate的现在分词 )； 勾结叛国

参考例句：

• Joe is collaborating on the work with a friend. 乔正与一位朋友合作做那件工作。
• He was not only learning from but also collaborating with Joseph Thomson. 他不仅是在跟约瑟福？汤姆逊学习，而且也是在和他合作。

4 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

5 consensus   

n.(意见等的)一致，一致同意，共识

参考例句：

• Can we reach a consensus on this issue?我们能在这个问题上取得一致意见吗？
• What is the consensus of opinion at the afternoon meeting?下午会议上一致的意见是什么？

6 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》

7 insufficient   

adj.(for，of)不足的，不够的

参考例句：

• There was insufficient evidence to convict him.没有足够证据给他定罪。
• In their day scientific knowledge was insufficient to settle the matter.在他们的时代，科学知识还不能足以解决这些问题。

8 hacking   

n.非法访问计算机系统和数据库的活动

参考例句：

• The patient with emphysema is hacking all day. 这个肺气肿病人整天不断地干咳。
• We undertook the task of hacking our way through the jungle. 我们负责在丛林中开路。

9 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

10 authentication   

鉴定，认证

参考例句：

• Computer security technology includes mainly:Authentication,Encryption,Access Control,Auditing and so on.计算机网络安全技术主要有: 认证授权、数据加密、访问控制、安全审计等。

11 judicious   

adj.明智的，明断的，能作出明智决定的

参考例句：

• We should listen to the judicious opinion of that old man.我们应该听取那位老人明智的意见。
• A judicious parent encourages his children to make their own decisions.贤明的父亲鼓励儿女自作抉择。