纽约时报 沙特部署网络水军 专门扼杀哈苏吉等批判人士(1)

Saudis Deploy¹ a Swarm² of Online Trolls to Stifle³ Critics like Khashoggi

沙特部署网络水军，专门扼杀哈苏吉等批判人士

By Katie Benner, Mark Mazzetti, Ben Hubbard and Mike Isaac

文/卡蒂·本纳，马克·马泽蒂，本·哈巴德，迈克·艾萨克

Each morning, Jamal Khashoggi would check his phone to discover what fresh hell had been unleashed⁴ while he was sleeping.

每天早上，贾马尔·哈苏吉都会打开手机看看他睡觉期间网上又发了哪些新的鬼话。

He would see the work of an army of Twitter trolls, ordered to attack him and other influential⁵ Saudis who had criticized the kingdom’s leaders.

他会看到一大群推特水军的言论，他们都是受命到网上攻击他还有其他颇具影响力又批判过该王国各位领导人的沙特人的。

He sometimes took the attacks personally, so friends made a point of calling frequently to check on his mental state.

有时，哈苏吉也会将这些攻击当真，所以朋友们都特别注意经常给他打电话，确保他的精神还正常。

"The mornings were the worst for him because he would wake up to the equivalent of sustained gunfire online,"

“早上对他来说是最糟糕的，因为他一醒来就要面对一场持续的网络枪战，

said Maggie Mitchell Salem, a friend of Mr. Khashoggi’s for more than 15 years.

与哈苏吉有着15多年交情的麦琪·米歇尔·赛伦说到。

Mr. Khashoggi’s online attackers were part of a broad effort dictated⁶ by Crown Prince Mohammed bin⁷ Salman and his close advisers⁹ to silence critics both inside Saudi Arabia and abroad.

为了让沙特内外的批判者们噤声，王储穆罕默德·本·萨勒曼及其关系亲密的顾问做出了广泛指示，那些攻击哈苏吉的网络喷子就在其中。

Hundreds of people work at a so-called troll farm in Riyadh to smother¹⁰ the voices of dissidents like Mr. Khashoggi.

利雅得一个所谓的“巨魔农场”上养着数百名水军，专门扼杀哈苏吉之类持不同政见者的声音。

The vigorous push also appears to include the grooming¹¹ — not previously¹² reported — of a Saudi employee at Twitter

沙特王储的这一强势举措似乎还包括给推特的一名沙特员工洗脑，此事在此之前并未见报，

whom Western intelligence officials suspected of spying on user accounts to help the Saudi leadership.

据西方情报官员怀疑，该员工有监视用户账户以帮助沙特领导人的嫌疑。

The killing¹³ by Saudi agents of Mr. Khashoggi, a columnist¹⁴ for The Washington Post,

沙特特工杀害《华盛顿邮报》专栏作家哈苏吉一事，

has focused the world’s attention on the kingdom’s intimidation¹⁵ campaign against influential voices,

将全世界的注意力都吸引到了沙特王国为镇压有影响力的人士采取的恐吓活动上，

raising questions about the darker side of the crown prince.

进而引起了人们对这位王储阴暗面的质疑。

The young royal has tightened¹⁶ his grip on the kingdom while presenting himself in Western capitals as the man to reform the hidebound Saudi state.

这位年轻的王室成员一边加强自己对王室的控制，一边以改革守旧的沙特王国的改革者的形象出现在西方各国的首都。

This portrait of the kingdom’s image management crusade is based on interviews with seven people involved in those efforts or briefed on them;

这一王国形象管理改革运动的描述是本刊采访了七位知情人士，这些人要么是那些活动的参与者，要么收到过相关汇报；

activists¹⁸ and experts who have studied them; and American and Saudi officials, along with messages seen by The New York Times that described the inner workings of the troll farm.

要么是研究过这些活动的活动家和专家；要么是美国和沙特的官员，加上本刊看到的描述“巨魔农场”内部运作的信息得出来的。

Saudi operatives have mobilized to harass¹⁹ critics on Twitter, a wildly popular platform for news in the kingdom since the Arab Spring uprisings began in 2010.

沙特特工已经动员起来在推特上骚扰沙特的批判者，因为，从2010年“阿拉伯之春”起义以来，推特在该国一直是一家广受欢迎的新闻平台。

Saud al-Qahtani, a top adviser⁸ to Crown Prince Mohammed who was fired on Saturday in the fallout from Mr. Khashoggi’s killing, was the strategist behind the operation, according to United States and Saudi officials, as well as activist¹⁷ organizations.

根据美国和沙特官员及维权组织的说法，沙特·阿尔-卡塔尼，受哈苏吉之死影响于周六被解雇的穆罕默德王储的高级顾问，就是此次行动背后的策划。

Many Saudis had hoped that Twitter would democratize discourse²⁰ by giving everyday citizens a voice,

许多沙特人都指望着推特能够通过赋予普通公民发言权来使沙特的话语更加民主，

but Saudi Arabia has instead become an illustration of how authoritarian²¹ governments can manipulate social media to silence or drown out critical voices while spreading their own version of reality.

然而，沙特反而成了一个专治政府操控社交媒体禁言、淹没批判的声音，同时散布他们所谓的现实的例子。

“In the Gulf²², the stakes are so high for those who engage in dissent²³ that the benefits of using social media are outweighed²⁴ by the negatives, and in Saudi Arabia in particular,”

“在海湾地区，尤其是在沙特，存有异议的人往往都冒着巨大的风险，以致于对他们而言，使用社交媒体的好处远不及使用它的坏处大，”

said Marc Owen Jones, a lecturer in the history of the Persian Gulf and Arabian Peninsula at Exeter University in Britain.

英国埃克塞特大学波斯湾和阿拉伯半岛历史方向的讲师马克·欧文·琼斯说到。

Neither Saudi officials nor Mr. Qahtani responded to requests for comment about the kingdom’s efforts to control online conversations.

媒体请求沙特官员和卡塔尼对沙特王国努力控制网络言论一事发表看法，双方均未做出回应。

Before his death, Mr. Khashoggi was launching projects to combat online abuse and to try to reveal that Crown Prince Mohammed was mismanaging the country.

去世前，哈苏吉先生正在着手启动打击网络霸凌的项目，揭露穆罕默德王储对该国管理不善的事实。

In September, Mr. Khashoggi wired $5,000 to Omar Abdulaziz, a Saudi dissident living in Canada, who was creating a volunteer army to combat the government trolls on Twitter.

九月，哈苏吉给居住在加拿大对沙特持不同政见者的奥马尔·阿卜杜勒阿齐兹汇去了5000美元的资金，当时后者正在推特上组织一支反抗沙特政府的水军的志愿军。

The volunteers called themselves the “Electronic Bees.”

那些志愿者们自称“电子蜂。”

Eleven days before Mr. Khashoggi died in the Saudi consulate²⁵ in Istanbul, he wrote on Twitter that the Bees were coming.

哈苏吉在伊斯坦布尔的沙特使馆出事的11天前，他曾在推特上发文，称电子蜂就要出巢了。

1 deploy   

v.（军）散开成战斗队形，布置，展开

参考例句：

• The infantry began to deploy at dawn.步兵黎明时开始进入战斗位置。
• The president said he had no intention of deploying ground troops.总统称并不打算部署地面部队。

2 swarm   

n.(昆虫)等一大群；vi.成群飞舞；蜂拥而入

参考例句：

• There is a swarm of bees in the tree.这树上有一窝蜜蜂。
• A swarm of ants are moving busily.一群蚂蚁正在忙碌地搬家。

3 stifle   

vt.使窒息；闷死；扼杀；抑止，阻止

参考例句：

• She tried hard to stifle her laughter.她强忍住笑。
• It was an uninteresting conversation and I had to stifle a yawn.那是一次枯燥无味的交谈，我不得不强忍住自己的呵欠。

4 unleashed   

v.把（感情、力量等）释放出来，发泄( unleash的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The government's proposals unleashed a storm of protest in the press. 政府的提案引发了新闻界的抗议浪潮。
• The full force of his rage was unleashed against me. 他把所有的怒气都发泄在我身上。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 influential   

adj.有影响的，有权势的

参考例句：

• He always tries to get in with the most influential people.他总是试图巴结最有影响的人物。
• He is a very influential man in the government.他在政府中是个很有影响的人物。

6 dictated   

v.大声讲或读( dictate的过去式和过去分词 )；口授；支配；摆布

参考例句：

• He dictated a letter to his secretary. 他向秘书口授信稿。
• No person of a strong character likes to be dictated to. 没有一个个性强的人愿受人使唤。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 bin   

n.箱柜；vt.放入箱内；[计算机] DOS文件名:二进制目标文件

参考例句：

• He emptied several bags of rice into a bin.他把几袋米倒进大箱里。
• He threw the empty bottles in the bin.他把空瓶子扔进垃圾箱。

8 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。

9 advisers   

顾问，劝告者( adviser的名词复数 )； （指导大学新生学科问题等的）指导教授

参考例句：

• a member of the President's favoured circle of advisers 总统宠爱的顾问班子中的一员
• She withdrew to confer with her advisers before announcing a decision. 她先去请教顾问然后再宣布决定。

10 smother   

vt./vi.使窒息；抑制；闷死；n.浓烟；窒息

参考例句：

• They tried to smother the flames with a damp blanket.他们试图用一条湿毯子去灭火。
• We tried to smother our laughter.我们强忍住笑。

11 grooming   

n. 修饰, 美容，（动物）梳理毛发

参考例句：

• You should always pay attention to personal grooming. 你应随时注意个人仪容。
• We watched two apes grooming each other. 我们看两只猩猩在互相理毛。

12 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。

13 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

14 columnist   

n.专栏作家

参考例句：

• The host was interviewing a local columnist.节目主持人正在同一位当地的专栏作家交谈。
• She's a columnist for USA Today.她是《今日美国报》的专栏作家。

15 intimidation   

n.恐吓，威胁

参考例句：

• The Opposition alleged voter intimidation by the army.反对党声称投票者受到军方的恐吓。
• The gang silenced witnesses by intimidation.恶帮用恐吓的手段使得证人不敢说话。

16 tightened   

收紧( tighten的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）变紧； （使）绷紧； 加紧

参考例句：

• The rope holding the boat suddenly tightened and broke. 系船的绳子突然绷断了。
• His index finger tightened on the trigger but then relaxed again. 他的食指扣住扳机，然后又松开了。

17 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

18 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

19 harass   

vt.使烦恼，折磨，骚扰

参考例句：

• Our mission is to harass the landing of the main Japaness expeditionary force.我们的任务是骚乱日本远征军主力的登陆。
• They received the order to harass the enemy's rear.他们接到骚扰敌人后方的命令。

20 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。

21 authoritarian   

n./adj.专制(的)，专制主义者，独裁主义者

参考例句：

• Foreign diplomats suspect him of authoritarian tendencies.各国外交官怀疑他有着独裁主义倾向。
• The authoritarian policy wasn't proved to be a success.独裁主义的政策证明并不成功。

22 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

23 dissent   

n./v.不同意，持异议

参考例句：

• It is too late now to make any dissent.现在提出异议太晚了。
• He felt her shoulders gave a wriggle of dissent.他感到她的肩膀因为不同意而动了一下。

24 outweighed   

v.在重量上超过( outweigh的过去式和过去分词 )；在重要性或价值方面超过

参考例句：

• This boxer outweighed by his opponent 20 pounds. 这个拳击选手体重比他的对手重20磅。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She outweighed me by ten pounds, and sometimes she knocked me down. 她的体重超过我十磅，有时竟把我撞倒。 来自百科语句

25 consulate   

n.领事馆

参考例句：

• The Spanish consulate is the large white building opposite the bank.西班牙领事馆是银行对面的那栋高大的白色建筑物。
• The American consulate was a magnificent edifice in the centre of Bordeaux.美国领事馆是位于波尔多市中心的一座宏伟的大厦。