PBS高端访谈:推特机器人如何再用冷战方法散布政治分歧

John Yang: All the attention on the Nunes memo¹ goes back two weeks, even more. And there are questions about whether some of that attention, at least on social media, has been coming from real users, or whether it's being ginned up artificially. William Brangham has more.

William Brangham: In the days leading up to the release of that controversial Nunes memo, there was a hashtag on Twitter called #releasethememo that became hugely popular on Twitter.It was used by conservatives and allies of the president who hoped the memo's release would undercut special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation². But a series of recent reports indicate that some of those Twitter accounts promoting #releasethememo were fake, and that some of them were linked to Russian interests. Thomas Rid is at the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies, and he's been examining how Twitter and other online platforms can be used by these so-called fake bots to spread information online. Welcome back to the "NewsHour."

Thomas Rid: Hi.

William Brangham: So, as I was describing, this hashtag on Twitter called #releasethememo became hugely popular. Lots of people, real live human beings, were using the hashtag because they wanted the memo to come out, but allegedly some of these hashtag were being promoted by these bots. Can you explain what we know about these bots and what they have — how they might have been connected to Russia?

Thomas Rid: So, a bot is an automated³ Twitter account that doesn't have a real human being behind it, but just a program. And, indeed, it seems that some automated accounts and some fake real human beings that aren't actually who they pretend to be, use the #releasethememo hashtag — a hashtag is a way to make a Twitter — a tweet circulate more — used that hashtag to give it some lift. Really, it's very difficult to distinguish between these real conservative activists⁴ and politicians.

William Brangham: Real people.

Thomas Rid: Real people — and fake personas that may be linked to Russian interests. And that is a problem in itself.

William Brangham: So, explain how this would actually work. For those who don't use Twitter or understand the mechanics of it, basically, I choose who I want to follow, some 50,000, 100,000 different voices, and I get messages from those people directly in their Twitter as they tweet out messages. If I don't follow these bots, why do I care what they are or are not saying?

Thomas Rid: So, indeed, a lot of users on Twitter think they don't follow any bots — and they may actually not follow any artificial accounts that are not human — and therefore think that doesn't concern me, this problem. But that's not how this works. For example, imagine you see a tweet, a post on Twitter, and that has been retweeted or liked thousands, tens of thousands of times. You never check whether these retweets, which make something appear very important and viral, whether they actually are real or not. So it's possible to give actual messages, like a hashtag, to give it more lift and more weight through automation and through automated abuse.

William Brangham: Now, it's like fake applause for a comedian⁵. He plants people in there to clap or laugh extra hard, and it makes him seem funnier, at least to the audience, than he really might be.

Thomas Rid: Absolutely, except it's not just the specific line that the comedian talks about that can be amped up and amplified⁶. It can be other messages that sort of filter up very slowly out of the vastness of all the Twitter posts and Twitter messages. So, Twitter, in fact, is a huge part of this problem here.

William Brangham: Now, Kellyanne Conway and the White House have said this wasn't about a hashtag on Twitter. This was a vote in the House Intelligence Committee. They're the ones who released this memo. What is the evidence that exists, if any, that this was some coordinated⁷ campaign by non-American actors?

Thomas Rid: So, Russia — and in the Cold War, it was Soviet⁸, of course, including East German and others — information operations, active measures was the term of art — always exploit existing conflicts, they exploit existing cracks in our political system, and then exacerbate⁹ these cracks and drive wedges into them. They don't create new conflict, which is a really important insight. It's not a distinction between fake and real, because they take a real conflict and make it worse.

William Brangham: So, I understand there was also some question as to whether or not the Black Lives Matter, the Confederate rallies, that those also were objects of attack by these Russian bots.

Thomas Rid: Very much so, but not just bots, just intelligence operators or sometimes contractors¹⁰. And, again, there's a long history. We know from the Cold War that Soviet operators had a long history of exacerbating¹¹ racial tensions. They would sometimes pose as the Ku Klux Klan, at other times pose as African-American activists. There's a long history of this.

William Brangham: I know you have been very critical of Twitter and other social media platforms, arguing that they could do more to stem this kind of fake messaging. What would you like them to do?

Thomas Rid: For example, Twitter gives the same level of privacy protection to you and possibly your children that it gives to Russian bots and fake accounts. That is just not OK. So, Twitter refuses to make the distinction and refuses to point out abuse, the fake bot accounts to its own users. It's impossible to, for example, opt¹² out of bot traffic, to opt out of messages from bots and retweets from bots.

William Brangham: And that's something you argue that Twitter could easily do that to identify the fake from the real.

Thomas Rid: Absolutely. Technically¹³, that is not a big problem. Indeed, Twitter claims that they can recognize bots automatically. But at the same time, the bots make Twitter appear larger and more engaging than it actually is. Twitter has never made money, and that's a way for them to appear bigger than they actually are.

William Brangham: Thomas Rid, thank you very much.

1 memo   

n.照会，备忘录；便笺；通知书；规章

参考例句：

• Do you want me to send the memo out?您要我把这份备忘录分发出去吗？
• Can you type a memo for me?您能帮我打一份备忘录吗？

2 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。

3 automated   

a.自动化的

参考例句：

• The entire manufacturing process has been automated. 整个生产过程已自动化。
• Automated Highway System (AHS) is recently regarded as one subsystem of Intelligent Transport System (ITS). 近年来自动公路系统(Automated Highway System,AHS)，作为智能运输系统的子系统之一越来越受到重视。

4 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》

5 comedian   

n.喜剧演员；滑稽演员

参考例句：

• The comedian tickled the crowd with his jokes.喜剧演员的笑话把人们逗乐了。
• The comedian enjoyed great popularity during the 30's.那位喜剧演员在三十年代非常走红。

6 amplified   

放大，扩大( amplify的过去式和过去分词 )； 增强； 详述

参考例句：

• He amplified on his remarks with drawings and figures. 他用图表详细地解释了他的话。
• He amplified the whole course of the incident. 他详述了事件的全过程。

7 coordinated   

adj.协调的

参考例句：

• The sound has to be coordinated with the picture. 声音必须和画面协调一致。
• The numerous existing statutes are complicated and poorly coordinated. 目前繁多的法令既十分复杂又缺乏快调。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

8 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

9 exacerbate   

v.恶化，增剧，激怒，使加剧

参考例句：

• WMO says a warming climate can exacerbate air pollution.世界气象组织说，气候变暖可能会加剧空气污染。
• In fact efforts will merely exacerbate the current problem.实际上努力只会加剧当前的问题。

10 contractors   

n.（建筑、监造中的）承包人( contractor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• We got estimates from three different contractors before accepting the lowest. 我们得到3个承包商的报价后，接受了最低的报价。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Contractors winning construction jobs had to kick back 2 per cent of the contract price to the mafia. 赢得建筑工作的承包商得抽出合同价格的百分之二的回扣给黑手党。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 exacerbating   

v.使恶化，使加重( exacerbate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• This pedagogical understretch is exacerbating social inequalities. 这种教学张力不足加重了社会不平等。 来自互联网
• High fertilizer prices are exacerbating the problem. 高涨的肥料价格更加加剧了问题的恶化。 来自互联网

12 opt   

vi.选择，决定做某事

参考例句：

• They opt for more holiday instead of more pay.他们选择了延长假期而不是增加工资。
• Will individual schools be given the right to opt out of the local school authority?各个学校可能有权选择退出地方教育局吗？

13 technically   

adv.专门地，技术上地

参考例句：

• Technically it is the most advanced equipment ever.从技术上说，这是最先进的设备。
• The tomato is technically a fruit,although it is eaten as a vegetable.严格地说，西红柿是一种水果，尽管它是当作蔬菜吃的。