美国国家公共电台 NPR--Are Twitter's days numbered after Elon Musk's chaotic takeover of the company?

Are Twitter's days numbered after Elon Musk¹'s chaotic² takeover of the company?

Transcript³

NPR's Rachel Martin talks to Joanna Stern, senior personal technology columnist⁴ for The Wall Street Journal about Twitter's impact, and what would be lost if the social network collapsed⁵.

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Elon Musk's chaotic takeover of Twitter has led to the departure of nearly half of Twitter's staff, including engineers who are crucial to the maintenance of the platform's infrastructure⁶ and security. This all has sparked questions about whether Twitter is going to survive at all and what the impact would be. For more, we're joined by Joanna Stern, senior personal technology columnist for The Wall Street Journal. Thanks so much for being here, Joanna.

JOANNA STERN: Good morning.

MARTIN: I mean, you log on to Twitter, and you see people saying goodbye to each other like it's the apocalypse, as if Twitter is going to disappear at any moment. Give us some ground truth, Joanna. How likely is that?

STERN: It's true. I said some goodbyes, but I really was being very sarcastic⁷. Look, people are having fun right now. There are some people having fun, some people not having fun on Twitter. They're leaving Twitter for other platforms because they feel what's going on there is, just as you said before, chaotic and not a lot of fun. But yeah, there's genuine fear that the platform could see some sporadic⁸ outages. The fact that it would go away forever is really, really, really unrealistic. I'm not a betting woman, but I would put a lot of money - I mean, I don't have $44 billion like Elon Musk, but if I did, I'd put a lot of money on it that it's not going to go down because he put a lot of money on this company. But there's fear that because he has let go so many employees - and some have left them on their own accord - that there isn't the proper infrastructure, the right engineering talent to keep all the systems going as they should. And will that result in specific types of outages, parts of the service going down? We don't know. But there are certainly fear from even very smart people in this industry that parts of the service can go down.

MARTIN: But it's not just technical, right? A lot of the concern is around editorial decisions. Donald Trump⁹ has been allowed to come back on Twitter. His feed has been restored. This is after he was barred for inciting¹⁰ violence on January 6. I mean, Elon Musk did this with, like, a Twitter poll. Does that mean that there is no longer any group of public ethics¹¹ professionals at Twitter making decisions about disinformation and violent speech?

STERN: Some may still work there. It does not appear that many do, but it is certainly the case that Elon Musk is in charge of those decisions now. And the fact is, is that he is obviously showing us through this decision over the weekend to put Trump back on Twitter, to put Kanye West back on Twitter, that he is in charge of this. And he may take a poll, but at the end of the day, he is in charge of it. And, of course, he points to the fact that the poll had 52% in favor of Trump, but also I don't want anyone to forget here that Elon Musk fought - after saying he wanted to acquire Twitter, he fought the idea of taking over Twitter. He took - it was a legal battle. And his main point in that legal battle was that there are bots, automated¹² accounts, people who are not real on this platform, and yet he is trusting a poll that he puts up on his Twitter account. It's a little bit ironic¹³.

MARTIN: Well, so how is this going to affect advertisers? I mean, we've already seen corporations dropping off Twitter say they want to take a pause. But now we see, as you say, the reinstatement of Donald Trump and Kanye West and others. How are corporations weighing this?

STERN: Well, certainly in the last couple of weeks, they are weighing this, and they have been meeting with Twitter, with - Elon Musk himself has been doing groups of meetings with hundreds of advertisers, big marketing¹⁴ firms, to assure them that things are going to be OK on the platform. Now, he has said there will be continued moderation. He is planning to build certain new systems to increase moderation. But that does not mean that in the here and now people feel that this is a platform that has stability, that has - you know, that is not - the big thing that advertisers are concerned is is, hey, we put up an ad and then we're right next to some hate speech or some other terrible thing. And so advertisers are not feeling that confidence. And certainly they're pulling out. Some are pulling out, some are pausing. But the big question is, over time, does Elon Musk care? Obviously, right now, he may care in the near term because that's a big hit. But he's looking to diversify¹⁵ this business with more subscription¹⁶ revenue and other ways of monetizing social media that just isn't reliant on advertising¹⁷.

MARTIN: Joanna, real quick, I mean, it seems to me if you were a scrappy former employee at Twitter, you'd be building your alternative right now.

STERN: Many are. Many are. There are certainly some people going - many people going to alternatives. The big thing is, is building a new social media network is not easy, and it's not easy to start all over again. I will say even on my own - I don't know, Rachel, if you're a Twitter user, but, you know, you've built your following here. You've built your group of people. And taking that and packing it all up, it's not like we had some go bag prepared for this exit, right? I mean, so you've got to find a platform you like. You've then got to rebuild that following there. You've got to make sure other people you know and trust and like are at that platform. Some are going to a social media app called Mastodon. We'll see if that one takes off.

MARTIN: Yeah, exactly. We'll see how viable¹⁸ these things are. Joanna Stern with The Wall Street Journal, thank you.

STERN: Thank you.

1 musk   

n.麝香, 能发出麝香的各种各样的植物，香猫

参考例句：

• Musk is used for perfume and stimulant.麝香可以用作香料和兴奋剂。
• She scented her clothes with musk.她用麝香使衣服充满了香味。

2 chaotic   

adj.混沌的，一片混乱的，一团糟的

参考例句：

• Things have been getting chaotic in the office recently.最近办公室的情况越来越乱了。
• The traffic in the city was chaotic.这城市的交通糟透了。

3 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

4 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。

5 collapsed   

adj.倒塌的

参考例句：

• Jack collapsed in agony on the floor. 杰克十分痛苦地瘫倒在地板上。
• The roof collapsed under the weight of snow. 房顶在雪的重压下突然坍塌下来。

6 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。

7 sarcastic   

adj.讥讽的，讽刺的，嘲弄的

参考例句：

• I squashed him with a sarcastic remark.我说了一句讽刺的话把他给镇住了。
• She poked fun at people's shortcomings with sarcastic remarks.她冷嘲热讽地拿别人的缺点开玩笑。

8 sporadic   

adj.偶尔发生的 [反]regular；分散的

参考例句：

• The sound of sporadic shooting could still be heard.仍能听见零星的枪声。
• You know this better than I.I received only sporadic news about it.你们比我更清楚，而我听到的只是零星消息。

9 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。

10 inciting   

刺激的，煽动的

参考例句：

• What are you up to inciting mutiny and insubordination? 你们干吗在这里煽动骚动的叛乱呀。
• He was charged with inciting people to rebel. 他被控煽动民众起来叛乱。

11 ethics   

n.伦理学；伦理观，道德标准

参考例句：

• The ethics of his profession don't permit him to do that.他的职业道德不允许他那样做。
• Personal ethics and professional ethics sometimes conflict.个人道德和职业道德有时会相互抵触。

12 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。

13 ironic   

adj.讽刺的，有讽刺意味的，出乎意料的

参考例句：

• That is a summary and ironic end.那是一个具有概括性和讽刺意味的结局。
• People used to call me Mr Popularity at high school,but they were being ironic.人们中学时常把我称作“万人迷先生”，但他们是在挖苦我。

14 marketing   

n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西

参考例句：

• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
• He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。

15 diversify   

v.（使）不同，（使）变得多样化

参考例句：

• Our company is trying to diversify.我们公司正力图往多样化方面发展。
• Hills and woods diversify the landscape.山陵和树木点缀景色。

16 subscription   

n.预订，预订费，亲笔签名，调配法，下标（处方）

参考例句：

• We paid a subscription of 5 pounds yearly.我们按年度缴纳5英镑的订阅费。
• Subscription selling bloomed splendidly.订阅销售量激增。

17 advertising   

n.广告业；广告活动 a.广告的；广告业务的

参考例句：

• Can you give me any advice on getting into advertising? 你能指点我如何涉足广告业吗?
• The advertising campaign is aimed primarily at young people. 这个广告宣传运动主要是针对年轻人的。

18 viable   

adj.可行的，切实可行的，能活下去的

参考例句：

• The scheme is economically viable.这个计划从经济效益来看是可行的。
• The economy of the country is not viable.这个国家经济是难以维持的。