美国国家公共电台 NPR 美四大科技巨头CEO出席反垄断听证会

They were called the cyber barons¹ and modern monopolists. Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Apple's Tim Cook, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Google's Sundar Pichai spent almost six hours fielding questions from Congress over video conference yesterday. Here's how House antitrust chief Rhode Island Democrat² David Cicilline set the stage for the hearing yesterday.

他们被称为网络大亨和现代垄断者。昨天，亚马逊的杰夫·贝佐斯、苹果的蒂姆·库克、脸谱网的马克·扎克伯格以及谷歌的桑达尔·皮查伊以视频会议的方式接受国会质询，听证时间接近6个小时。以下是众议院反垄断小组负责人、罗德岛民主党议员大卫·西林为昨天举行的听证会奠定的基调。

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DAVID CICILLINE: Our founders³ would not bow before a king, nor should we bow before the emperors of the online economy.

大卫·西林：我们的创始人不会在国王面前鞠躬，我们也不应该在网络经济帝王面前鞠躬。

GREENE: OK. Before we go on, we should note that all of these companies are among financial supporters of NPR. Let's bring in NPR's Alina Selyukh, who covered this. Hi, Alina.

格林：好。在我们继续报道之前，我们应该指出，这些公司都是NPR新闻的资助方。下面我们来连线NPR的艾丽娜·塞尔约克，由她进行详细报道。你好，艾丽娜。

ALINA SELYUKH, BYLINE⁴: Good morning.

艾丽娜·塞尔约克连线：早上好。

GREENE: So what did we learn yesterday?

格林：我们昨天了解到了哪些情况？

SELYUKH: So the House lawmakers, who called this hearing, have been investigating these companies for over a year now. And yesterday, we got a first taste of what it is that they've learned from all the interviews, documents and emails that they've collected. It was a fairly adversarial situation with the CEOs. In a way, this was a tale of two hearings.

塞尔约克：召集这场听证会的众议院议员已经对这些公司进行了一年多的调查。昨天，我们首次知道了他们从各种问询以及所收集文件和电邮中了解到的信息。可以说，情况与首席执行官相对立。从某种程度上说，这相当于两场听证会。

One was the key focus — how the tech giants may have grown at the expense of others. For example, lawmakers grilled⁵ Facebook about how the company buys or replicates⁶ rivals that threaten to lure⁷ away its users like Instagram. Washington Democrat Pramila Jayapal read off emails between Zuckerberg and other executives.

其一是关键焦点，即科技巨头如何在牺牲他人的情况下发展壮大。比如，议员质问脸谱网，该公司如何收购或抄袭可能吸引走其用户的竞争对手，比如Instagram。华盛顿州民主党议员普拉米拉·贾亚帕尔朗读了扎克伯格和其他高管之间的电子邮件。

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PRAMILA JAYAPAL: Do you copy your competitors?

普拉米拉·贾亚帕尔：你抄袭你的竞争对手了吗？

MARK ZUCKERBERG: Congresswoman, we've certainly adapted features that others have led in as have others copied and adapted features that we've...

马克·扎克伯格：国会议员，我们肯定会在我们的产品里使用别人首先做出的功能，别人也会抄袭和使用我们的功能……

JAYAPAL: I'm not concerned about others. I'm just asking you, Mr. Zuckerberg.

贾亚帕尔：我不关心别人。我是在问你，扎克伯格先生。

SELYUKH: Similarly, Google has been accused by Yelp⁸ and others of stealing restaurant reviews and other content. Some small sellers on Amazon have complained about feeling trapped and dealing⁹ with constantly changing rules. App developers have accused Apple of unfairly charging them different fees. All four CEOs face different versions of the same question about how they throw their weight around to bully¹⁰ competitors out of the way.

塞尔约克：同样，谷歌也被Yelp和其他公司指控窃取餐厅评价和其他内容。一些亚马逊上的小型卖家投诉称，他们感觉自已被困住，还要应对不断变化的规则。应用程序开发者指责苹果公司不公平地向他们收取各种费用。所有四家公司的首席执行官都面临同一个问题的不同版本，即他们如何施展自已的力量解决竞争对手。

GREENE: All right, so a lot there. But there was more, right? You said this was a tale of two hearings.

格林：好，有很多信息。但还有更多内容，对吧？你刚才说这相当于两场听证会。

SELYUKH: Yes. You know, as I said, the point of this hearing was how tech companies deal with competition. But a big chunk¹¹ of the hearing had nothing to do with that. Several of Republicans, particularly the firebrand Jim Jordan from Ohio, probed the CEOs for anti-conservative bias¹².

塞尔约克：对。正如我所说，这场听证会的重点是科技公司如何应对竞争。但听证会的大部分内容都与此无关。多名共和党人，尤其是来自俄亥俄州的煽动者吉姆·乔丹，调查了这些首席执行官的反保守偏见。

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JIM JORDAN: Mr. Cook, is the cancel culture mob dangerous?

吉姆·乔丹：库克先生，取消文化暴徒危险吗？

SELYUKH: Jordan demanded neutrality from Google in the upcoming election. He asked if all the CEOs supported diversity of opinions, which actually prompted a bit of an interesting moment. Bezos took a dig at discourse¹³ on social media, calling social networks nuance¹⁴ destruction machines. I wish we could see Mark Zuckerberg's face at that moment. He was right there, but the video conference did not show him.

塞尔约克：乔丹要求谷歌在即将举行的总统大选中保持中立。他询问是否四家公司的首席执行官均支持观点多元化，这实际上引发了一个有趣时刻。贝佐斯挖苦了社交媒体上的言论，称社交网络是精细的毁灭机器。我希望我们能看到那一刻马克·扎克伯格的表情。他就在那里，但视频会议没有给他特写。

GREENE: Yeah. It's a different scene when we're in video conference, and I'm watching them all sitting there...

格林：好。进行视频会议是另一种场景，我看到他们都坐在那里……

SELYUKH: Right.

塞尔约克：对。

GREENE: ...Behind that desk. So what was your impression of these CEOs? Like, how did they handle themselves yesterday?

格林：坐在桌子后面。你对这些首席执行官有何印象？比如，他们昨天是如何应对的？

SELYUKH: You know, they rejected the entire premise¹⁵ of the hearing that they're big bullies¹⁶. They played up their humble¹⁷ beginnings, how much people value their product, how they still face competition. Bezos was billed as the big get for the hearing, the first appearance by the world's richest person before Congress. He had technical difficulties and got no questions for over an hour, even was caught on video sneaking¹⁸ some snacks. But then came a series of questions about how Amazon treats sellers on its platform, starting with Jayapal asking, does Amazon use data it collects from other sellers to make its own products? And Bezos replied...

塞尔约克：他们反对听证会的全部前提，即他们是“恶霸”。他们大力渲染自已卑微的开端，人们对他们的产品有多重视，他们仍面临竞争等等。贝佐斯被视为听证会的重要人物，这是世界首富首次在国会作证。他遇到了技术方面的困难，一个多小时都没有被提问，甚至被拍到偷吃零食的画面。但之后，议员就亚马逊如何对待其平台卖家提出了一系列问题，最先提问的是贾亚帕尔，问题是亚马逊是否利用其从其他卖家那里收集的数据来制造自已的产品？贝佐斯的回答是……

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JEFF BEZOS: What I can tell you is we have a policy against using seller-specific data to aid our private-label business. But I can't guarantee you that that policy has never been violated.

杰夫·贝佐斯：我可以告诉你的是，我们有一项政策，禁止使用特定的卖家数据协助自有品牌业务。但我不能保证这项政策从未被违反过。

SELYUKH: An unexpected concession¹⁹ from Bezos. Overall, companies essentially²⁰ argued bad episodes were outliers. Their entire goal is to make users happy. And now we wait to see what the committee thinks when they release their final findings of the investigation²¹.

塞尔约克：这是贝佐斯出人意料的让步。总的来说，这些公司基本上都认为不良事件是例外。他们的总体目标是让用户满意。现在我们要等待委员会公布最终调查结果，看看委员会想法为何。

GREENE: NPR's Alina Selyukh. Thanks, Alina.

格林：以上是NPR新闻的艾丽娜·塞尔约克带来的报道。谢谢你，艾丽娜。

SELYUKH: Thank you.

塞尔约克：谢谢。

1 barons   

男爵( baron的名词复数 )； 巨头； 大王； 大亨

参考例句：

• The barons of Normandy had refused to countenance the enterprise officially. 诺曼底的贵族们拒绝正式赞助这桩买卖。
• The barons took the oath which Stephen Langton prescribed. 男爵们照斯蒂芬？兰顿的指导宣了誓。

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 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

4 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。

5 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。

6 replicates   

复制( replicate的第三人称单数 )； 重复； 再造； 再生

参考例句：

• The bluetongue virus replicates in the insect. 蓝舌病病毒在这种昆虫体内繁殖。
• The chameleon's skin replicates the pattern of its surroundings. 变色龙的皮肤可随环境的模式而改变颜色。

7 lure   

n.吸引人的东西，诱惑物；vt.引诱，吸引

参考例句：

• Life in big cities is a lure for many country boys.大城市的生活吸引着许多乡下小伙子。
• He couldn't resist the lure of money.他不能抵制金钱的诱惑。

8 yelp   

vi.狗吠

参考例句：

• The dog gave a yelp of pain.狗疼得叫了一声。
• The puppy a yelp when John stepped on her tail.当约翰踩到小狗的尾巴，小狗发出尖叫。

9 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

10 bully   

n.恃强欺弱者，小流氓；vt.威胁，欺侮

参考例句：

• A bully is always a coward.暴汉常是懦夫。
• The boy gave the bully a pelt on the back with a pebble.那男孩用石子掷击小流氓的背脊。

11 chunk   

n.厚片，大块，相当大的部分（数量）

参考例句：

• They had to be careful of floating chunks of ice.他们必须当心大块浮冰。
• The company owns a chunk of farmland near Gatwick Airport.该公司拥有盖特威克机场周边的大片农田。

12 bias   

n.偏见，偏心，偏袒；vt.使有偏见

参考例句：

• They are accusing the teacher of political bias in his marking.他们在指控那名教师打分数有政治偏见。
• He had a bias toward the plan.他对这项计划有偏见。

13 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。

14 nuance   

n.(意义、意见、颜色)细微差别

参考例句：

• These users will easily learn each nuance of the applications they use.这些用户会很快了解他们所使用程序的每一细微差别。
• I wish I hadn't become so conscious of every little nuance.我希望我不要变得这样去思索一切琐碎之事。

15 premise   

n.前提；v.提论，预述

参考例句：

• Let me premise my argument with a bit of history.让我引述一些史实作为我立论的前提。
• We can deduce a conclusion from the premise.我们可以从这个前提推出结论。

16 bullies   

n.欺凌弱小者, 开球 vt.恐吓, 威胁, 欺负

参考例句：

• Standing up to bullies takes plenty of backbone. 勇敢地对付暴徒需有大无畏精神。
• Bullies can make your life hell. 恃强欺弱者能让你的日子像活地狱。

17 humble   

adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低

参考例句：

• In my humble opinion,he will win the election.依我拙见，他将在选举中获胜。
• Defeat and failure make people humble.挫折与失败会使人谦卑。

18 sneaking   

a.秘密的，不公开的

参考例句：

• She had always had a sneaking affection for him. 以前她一直暗暗倾心于他。
• She ducked the interviewers by sneaking out the back door. 她从后门偷偷溜走，躲开采访者。

19 concession   

n.让步，妥协；特许(权)

参考例句：

• We can not make heavy concession to the matter.我们在这个问题上不能过于让步。
• That is a great concession.这是很大的让步。

20 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

21 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。