虽说他的产品在国内不存在，但最近还是被小扎的新闻刷了一波又一波：生了二胎，要招高薪会说中文的保姆，否认自己要竞选2020年的总统。但架不住吃瓜群众（和媒体）的热情啊！川普说主流媒体都被人操纵了来黑他，顺着这个思路，如果小扎竞选，那他能不能悄悄改变算法，操纵用户能看到的推送，来助自己获胜呢？毕竟大家都是在朋友圈（哦，脸书）看新闻的。
扎克伯格能利用Facebook竞选总统么？
译者：徐唱
校对：
尹子梦
词汇：
王乐颖
策划：朱雨晴
If Mark Zuckerberg runs for president, will Facebook help him win?
如果扎克伯格竞选总统，脸书能帮他获胜么？
本文选自
The Guardian
| 取经号原创翻译
关注 取经号，
回复关键词“外刊”
获取《经济学人》等原版外刊获得方法
Despite his protestations to the contrary, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has been acting like someone planning to run for office. He hired a pollster, visited a Detroit auto plant and other
swing-state
locations, and gave a
high-profile
commencement
speech.
尽管脸书创始人扎克伯格否认自己有意竞选总统，但他表现得就像是准备竞选的人。他雇用了民意调查员，访问了位于底特律的福特车厂，去了在其他
摇摆州
的厂，还
高调
地发表了
毕业
演讲。
swing state
摇摆州，指美国大选中竞选双方势均力敌，都无明显优势的州，在理解大会上经常会倒向不同的政党，频频摇摆。
commencement
n. /kəˈmensmənt/ a ceremony at which students receive their academic degrees or diplomas 毕业典礼
Meanwhile, Facebook has been under intense criticism for its role as a
vector
of misinformation in recent elections. This week, Facebook admitted that Russian accounts purchased $100,000 in political ads in 2015 and 2016. This disclosure comes only two months after the platform refused to disclose who is paying for advertising on the platform and where they’re running.
与此同时，因为在近期大选中传播了错误信息，脸书正遭受着严厉的批评。本周，脸书承认在2015年和2016年中有俄罗斯账号购买了十万美金的政治广告。但仅在两个月前，脸书还拒绝公开平台上购买广告的账号名称和运营所在地。
vector
n. /ˈvektə(r)/ an insect, etc. that carries a particular disease from one living thing to another 传播者
This
confluence
of events demonstrates the urgent need for greater transparency about how Facebook is already being used for electoral influence, particularly its algorithms and advertising features. Facebook must be regulated like the broadcast medium that it has become. And if Zuckerberg wants to run for office, he should be leading the charge for meaningful transparency.
这些事件
汇集
在一起，表明了人们迫切希望脸书更加公开透明——脸书是如何被用来影响选举结果的，特别是它的算法和广告功能。脸书已经成为了一个广播媒介，它就必须像广播媒介一样受到规范。而且，如果扎克伯格想竞选总统，他更应该带头让脸书变得更透明公开。
confluence
n. [ˈkɒnfluəns](formal) the fact of two or more things becoming one汇集
The Facebook platform already has the ability to shift the outcome election if it so chooses.
Setting aside
the issue of so-called ‘fake news’ and its spread on the platform during 2016, Facebook itself is a powerful tool of voter mobilization and information.
脸书平台早就有能力改变大选结果，只要它想，它就能做到。
先不提
2016年在脸书上传播的所谓的“假消息”，脸书本身就是动员选民和操控信息的有力工具。
My own research
demonstrates
that seeing one’s Facebook friends praise others for voting increases turnout; other work finds that exposure to voting-related posts on Facebook increases turnout.
我自己的研究
表明
，看到脸书好友称赞别人投票会提升投票率；其他研究也发现脸书上有关选举帖子的曝光也会增加投票率。
Meanwhile, Facebook’s internal research shows that exposing users to voting reminders that include pictures or names of friends also makes them more likely to vote.
Algorithmic
shifts that prioritize showing these kinds of messages to certain groups of voters and suppressing them from others could theoretically be used to help a particular candidate.
同时，脸书内部研究表明，带有图片或好友名称的投票提醒同样会使用户更有可能投票。理论上来说，可以通过改变
算法
来帮助某一候选人，可以优先对特定投票人群展示这类信息，并对其他投票者隐藏信息。
algorithm
n. /ˈælɡərɪðəm/a set of rules that must be followed when solving a particular problem 算法
Currently, however, candidates can’t
manipulate
the algorithm – they only have access to Facebook’s public organizing and advertising tools. They can create fan pages, pay to promote posts, use Facebook ads to recruit fans, recruit members for their email lists, and deploy apps that supporters can use to engage their friends.
然而目前候选人无法
操控
算法——他们只能接触到脸书的公共组织类和广告类工具。他们可以建立粉丝页面、付费发帖、利用脸书广告招募粉丝、增加邮件列表人员，并且推出可以让支持者们用来吸引他们朋友的软件。
And while shifts in Facebook’s algorithms can hurt the
organic reach
of posts by candidate pages, theoretically these changes are deployed without the intent to harm or benefit specific campaigns.
而且，尽管脸书的算法上的变化会对候选人帖子的
自然覆盖
产生不利影响，但理论上来说这些变化并不是有意为了使特定竞选人受损或受益。
organic reach
自然覆盖，是指在未付费情况下，能够接受到帖子的人数。
The algorithm makes Facebook different from other media – we don’t see a customized TV feed or hear different radio songs based on what we’ve liked before. This algorithm has long been a black box for people outside of the company. Now, it’s time for the platform to explain how it influences what political content gets spread on the network.
脸书的算法使它和其他媒体不同——我们不会因为之前喜欢的内容而看到定制的电视节目或听到不同的广播歌曲。长时间以来，这个算法对脸书公司以外的人一直是个黑匣子。现在，是时候让脸书来解释下这个算法如何影响互联网中政治信息的传播了。
Advertising is another area where Facebook needs to radically increase transparency. While candidates must disclose their spending on required campaign finance filings, they can avoid reporting their exact Facebook spending amounts by hiring a firm to run the ads and paying for them as part of their overall consulting fee.
广告是脸书另一需要特别公开的部分。虽然候选人必须在要求的竞选财务报表上公开他们的花销，但他们不用报告在脸书上的具体花费——候选人可以通过雇佣公司来运营在脸书上的广告，并把这一花费算进总咨询费里。
Other entities don’t have to disclose their Facebook spending at all, such as business entities, social welfare organizations, or so-called “
dark money
” groups. Furthermore, there’s nothing to stop the administrator of a Facebook page from paying to promote misleading or false content into millions of newsfeeds – and it’s not clear that they would have to disclose it to anyone.
其他例如企业、社会福利机构，或所谓的“
暗钱
”组织等实体则完全不用公开在脸书上的花费。此外，如果某脸书主页的管理者要付费将误导或错误内容放到数百万新闻推送中，也没什么能阻止他们。而且尚不清楚他们是否会向他人坦白这个手段。
dark money
指基于美国法律，是指捐给非营利组织的资金。
That’s why Facebook needs to pro-actively disclose the political advertisements made on its platform: the amount, spender, content, and targeting. There is precedent for this kind of disclosure: TV and radio stations have been providing so-called
public inspection files
.
这就是为什么脸书需要主动公开在其平台上的政治广告：数量、购买人、内容，以及目标人群。这类公开也有前例：电视和广播电台已经提供了所谓的
公共调查文件
。
public inspection files
公共调查文件，是广播机构需要向官方提交的一系文件，用于确保机构在官方的管辖之内。
This reform would also result in the disclosure of spending by any autocratic states or regimes in weak democracies that want to promote
propaganda
on Facebook. Facebook should also block the use of their paid features to promote links to websites and pages that knowingly publish political misinformation.
这场改革的另一个结果是，当较不民主的独裁国家或政权希望在脸书上进行
政治宣传
时，它们需要公开花费。脸书也应该阻止那些使用平台付费功能来传播蓄意发布政治假消息的网站和页面。
That would limit the spread of fake news on the platform going forward. And while Facebook claims to have blocked ads from running on fake news sites, they have not yet taken the step to block ads on Facebook by fake news sites – or haven’t disclosed it, if they have.
这样可以阻止平台上假新闻的进一步传播。而且虽然脸书声称他们已经拦截了直接来自虚假新闻网站上的广告，但他们还没有采取行动拦截由假新闻网站运营并在脸书上传播的广告——或者他们拦截了却还没有公开。
Disclosure of the algorithm and ad spending are big steps – and would generate an equally large increase in transparency regarding Facebook’s role and use in spreading political content. While these disclosures would not necessarily stop outside interference or
bad actors
