各位小伙伴，今天我们继续进行外刊精读，给大家选取的是《经济学人》关于脸书用户泄露风波报道的部分内容，里边的语言点和翻译难点都已标出，时事热点，不容错过。
LAST year
the idea took hold
(
很好的表达，背住
) that
Mark Zuckerberg
(
注意人名中间的点不能漏
) might run for president in 2020 and seek to lead
the world’s most powerful country
. Today, Facebook’s founder is
fighting
（
注意中文措辞
）
to show that he is capable of leading the world’s eighth-biggest
listed company
or that any of its 2.1bn users should trust it.
去年，
人们普遍认为
马克
·
扎克伯格
可能会在
2020
年竞选总统，争取领导
世界第一强国
。而如今，这位脸书创始人正
竭力
证明自己有能力领导全球第八大
上市公司
，或者其领导的公司应该获得
21
亿用户的信任。
News that
Cambridge Analytica (CA), a firm linked to President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, got data on 50m Facebook users in dubious, possibly illegal, ways has
lit a firestorm
. Mr Zuckerberg
took five days to reply
(
注意中英行文差异
) and, when he did, he conceded that Facebook had let its users down in the past but seemed not to have grasped that its business faces a
wider
(
注意措辞，不要照字译字
)
crisis of confidence
. After months of talk about propaganda and
fake news
, politicians in Europe and, increasingly, America see Facebook as
out of control
and in denial. Congress wants him to testify. Expect a roasting.
据报道
，剑桥分析（
Cambridge Analytica
）这家与特朗普
2016
年总统竞选有关联的公司以可疑且可能是非法的方式获得了
5000
万脸书用户的数据。消息爆出后
引起轩然大波
。扎克伯格
在五天后才做出回应
，他承认脸书过去曾让用户失望，但他似乎没有意识到公司的业务正面临更
严重
的
信任危机
。经过几个月有关政治造势和
虚假新闻
的讨论，欧洲政客以及越来越多的美国政客都认为脸书已经
失控
且还否认事实。国会希望扎克伯格前往作证。一场严苛的盘问为时不远了。
Since the news,
spooked investors
(
注意形容词的译法
) have
wiped 9% off Facebook’s shares
. (
很形象的说法
) Consumers are
belatedly
(
词性转换
)
waking up to
the
dangers
of handing over data to tech giants that are run like black boxes. Already, according to the Pew Research Centre, a
think-tank
, a majority of Americans say they distrust social-media firms. Mr Zuckerberg and his industry need to change, fast.
这一消息令
投资者惊恐不已
，
脸书股价迄今已下跌
9%
。
后知后觉的
消费者终于
意识到
，把数据交给如黑匣子一样运作的科技巨头
危险重重
。
智库
皮尤研究中心称，大多数美国人已经表示不再信任社交媒体公司。扎克伯格和社交媒体行业需要改变，且刻不容缓。
Facebook’s business relies on three elements:
keeping users glued to their screens
,(
值得学习的表达
) collecting data about their behavior and convincing advertisers to pay billions of dollars to reach them with
targeted ads
. The firm
has an incentive to
(
可以跳脱出来翻译)
promote material that grabs attention
and to sell ads to anyone. Its culture melds a
ruthless pursuit
(
注意措辞
) of profit with a Panglossian and narcissistic belief in its own virtue. Mr. Zuckerberg controls the firm’s voting rights. Clearly, he gets too little criticism.
上戏
脸书的业务依赖三大要素：
让用户眼不离屏
；收集其行为数据；说服广告主支付数十亿美元向用户投放
定向广告
。脸书
“
做大
”
吸睛的内容
以及向所有人推销广告
是有原因的
：它的文化融合着对利润的
不懈追求
和对自身美德的过分乐观与自恋。扎克伯格控制着公司的投票权。显然，他受到的批评太少了。
In the latest
fiasco
, it emerged that in 2013 an academic in Britain built a questionnaire app for Facebook users, which 270,000 people answered. They in turn had 50m Facebook friends. Data on all these people then ended up with CA. Facebook says that it could not happen again and that the academic and CA broke its rules; both deny doing anything wrong. Regulators in Europe and America are investigating. Facebook knew of the problem in 2015, but it did not alert individual users. Although nobody knows how much CA benefited Mr Trump’s campaign, the
fuss has been amplified
by the left’s
disbelief
(
词性转换
) that he could have won the election fairly.
最近这次
惨败
中爆出的事件是这样的：英国一位学者在
2013
年编写了一款面向脸书用户的问卷应用，
27
万人参与作答，而他们共有
5000
万脸书好友。最终，所有这些人的数据都落到了剑桥分析的手中。脸书表示这种情况不会再发生，还声称该学者和剑桥分析违反了它的规定，但那两方都否认自己有错。欧洲和美国的监管机构正在进行调查。脸书在
2015
年就知道了这个问题，但并没有提醒个人用户。虽然没人知道剑桥分析到底帮了特朗普竞选活动多大的忙，但左翼人士
怀疑
他并非公平胜出，
事情闹大了
。
But that does not give Facebook a
defence
. The episode fits an
established pattern
of
sloppiness
(
注意这三个名词最好都转成动词
) towards privacy,
tolerance
of
inaccuracy
and
reluctance
to admit mistakes. In early 2017 Mr Zuckerberg
dismissed
the idea that fake news had influenced the election as “pretty crazy”. In September Facebook said Kremlin-linked firms had spent a mere $100,000 to buy 3,000 adverts on its platform, failing at first to mention that 150m users had seen free posts by Russian
operatives
. It has also
repeatedly
misled advertisers about its user statistics.
但这并不能为脸书提供
无罪辩护
。此次事件符合它的一套
固有模式
：
草率对待
用户隐私、
容忍虚假新闻
、
不愿
承认错误。去年年初，扎克伯格
驳斥
虚假新闻影响选举的说法
“
非常疯狂
”
。
9
月，脸书表示，与克里姆林宫有关联的公司只花了
10
万美元就在其平台上购买了
3000
条广告，但没有第一时间说明有
1.5
亿用户看过俄罗斯
特工
发布的免费帖子。它还
多次
在用户统计数据方面误导广告主。
Facebook is not about to be banned or put out of business, but the chances of a
regulatory backlash
(
注意
backlash
翻译时的措辞
)
are growing. Europe is inflicting punishment by
a thousand cuts
, from digital taxes to antitrust cases. And
distrustful users
are switching off. The American customer base of Facebook’s core social network has stagnated since June 2017. Its
share
of America’s digital advertising market is forecast to dip this year for the first time. The network effect that made Facebook ever
more attractive
(
形容词比较级可以转为动词
) to new members as it grew
could
work in reverse
(
注意把话说清楚
) if it starts to shrink. Facebook
is worth
$493bn, but only has $14bn (
数字收尾“准顺快”
) of physical assets. Its value is intangible—and, potentially,
