中国镇压网络谣言之新浪微薄

译者 zkhappyfol

Under growing government pressure, China’s leading micro-blogging service, Sina Weibo, launched a new effort to quash Internet rumors Friday by sending warnings to its users to ignore false reports.
在政府的不断压力下，中国的领航微博服务——新浪微博，在周五展开了对网络留言的粉碎行动，警示其用户忽略不实言论。
The unusual move comes four days after Beijing’s Communist Party chief visited Sina Corp.'s headquarters and called for Internet companies to stop the spread of harmful and inaccurate information, which is seen as a threat to the government’s control.
这个不寻常的举动是在中央领导视察新浪公司总部后的第四天发生的。中央领导要求互联网公司停止对有害信息和不准确信息的转播，认为这类信息将会威胁到政府的把控。

Sina, which operates more than 200 million Twitter-like micro-blogs, sent at least two alerts Friday, one to dispel a rumor that the Red Cross Society of China was selling blood to hospitals for profit, the other to bust a claim that a 19-year-old woman’s murderer had been freed because of his father’s connections.
新浪微博，这个类似于Twitter的微博，拥有超过2亿的用户群，在周五发布了至少两条辟谣微博。一条是关于中国红十字会向医院出售血液以谋利的辟谣，另一条是一个19岁女谋杀犯因为其父的关系被无罪释放的辟谣。
“For sending out false information, the user's account will be suspended and will not publish posts or be followed for one month,” the second alert said.
对于散播第二条流言的用户，因其发布不实信息，其账户将被挂起不能继续发帖，或者将被跟踪一个月。
Micro-blogs, known in China as weibos, have been a thorn in the side of authorities as their popularity has grown in recent years. The medium has a massive casual following but has also been used to expose government scandals and disseminate articles, photographs and videos that would stand little chance of making it into state-controlled media.
微博客，在中国叫微博（拼音是weibo）。微博近几年发展迅猛，迅速流行，从当权者的角度来看，就像统治中的刺。这个媒体的关注虽然有大量偶然的情况，但也经常披露出政府的丑闻，并且通过文字、图片和视频的方式传播，使得政府无法把这个媒体的行为像政府媒体那样纳入其掌控之中。
The platform has been something of a nerve center for educated and tech-savvy Chinese, who have overwhelmingly embraced Sina, China’s first provider of micro-blogs. In 140 characters or fewer, users can express their opinions relatively freely to as wide an audience as they can attract. Celebrities and famous business figures attract millions of so-called followers.
新浪微博（新浪是中国第一家提供微博服务的）这个平台就像一个精神中心，聚集了中国受教育的和高科技知识的人群，这些人的力量非常庞大。用户可以用不超过140个字来相对自由地表达自己的观点，并尽量多地吸引其他人。一些名人和著名的商业领袖通常有百万级的人对他们感兴趣，这些人被称为“粉丝”。
But the government’s patience has been severely tested in recent months.
这样自由的传播信息的平台，让政府的耐心在最近的几个月里受到了严重的挑战。
In early July, micro-blogs were abuzz with word that former Chinese President Jiang Zemin had died. Signals grew so strong that some foreign media outlets confirmed the sensitive rumor. But after several days, China’s state media refuted the story (though Jiang has still not been seen in public).
7月初，微博上在嘀咕中国前主席江泽民逝世的消息。所有的指向似乎很明确，致使外国媒体对这个敏感流言信以为真。但是几天过后，中国的官方媒体否认了这个消息（尽管江泽民仍然没有公开露面）。
Later that month, micro-blogs helped galvanize widespread anger over official handling of a high-speed train collision in the eastern city of Wenzhou that killed 40 people.
7月底，对于政府处理7·23甬温线特大动车事故（造成40人死亡）的行为和态度，国人在微博上表示了极大的愤慨，并且这种情绪和信息迅速地传播到其他微博人群当中。
For days, Internet users sent millions of posts fueling innuendo that authorities were hastily burying wreckage and rescue teams were missing survivors. Officials denied the rumors under a barrage of criticism.
接下来的几天，互联网用户通过微博发表了几百万的帖子，质疑相关部门迅速掩埋车体残骸，并使救援人员错失了对幸存者的救援。官方在一片批评讽刺声中否认了这些流言。
Shortly after, China Central Television ran a report condemning rumors on micro-blogs as immoral –- an official shot across the bow for Sina and its competitors.
没过多久，中央电视台就播报了对微博道德底线质疑的节目，这是官方对新浪和其他互联网媒体的警告。
“Sina is probably using the messages to do two things,” said Jeremy Goldkorn, an expert in Chinese digital media, “make users think twice about posting scandalous or inflammatory information [and] to show the government that they are serious about controlling ‘rumors.’”
Jeremy Goldkorn，中国数字媒体专家，指出：“新浪微博应该用这些信息做了两件事，一件是促使用户对那些具有诽谤性的和煽动性的信息多加思考，另一件是体现出政府对控制流言的严肃态度。”
A spokesman for Sina said Friday that the company was stepping up efforts to silence intrigue and said programmers had devised a system to thwart what they felt were the most egregious rumors.
新浪发言人在周五称：新浪一直在努力净化阴谋言论，并且开发者已经设计出一套系统来抵制那些极其过分的流言。
“We’re trying to do our best to be a stable and trustworthy platform,” said the spokesman, who gave only his last name, Mao. He declined to comment on government pressure.
该毛姓发言人表示：“新浪一直在努力成为一个稳定和可信的平台。”不过他拒绝对评论政府给予的压力。
Experts say it was only a matter of time before the government would scrutinize Sina because of its growing influence. It’s now in the unenviable position of trying to preserve and expand a highly popular tool while also being forced to diminish users’ freedoms.
专家指出政府对新浪的彻底检查只是歌时间问题，毕竟新浪的快速发展产生了持续增长的影响。如果用户的自由度被迫减少，那么即使努力去构建一个更流行的工具是没什么可羡慕的。
Chinese Internet companies largely conduct their own censorship for the government, employing hundreds, if not thousands, to trawl content to remove offending material.
中国的互联网公司开始大规模地开展自己的审查机制，雇佣了成百上千的员工来为政府审查网络内容，并删除不当言论。
But asking Sina to identify rumors and disprove them on their own is an entirely new endeavor that could introduce new costs.
但是让新浪这样的互联网公司来识别流言，并证明其不真实的确是一项全新的尝试，并且增加新的成本。
In February, Deutsche Bank cut its rating for the Nasdaq-listed Sina stock from “hold” to “sell” citing the risk of government regulation.
2月份，德意志银行对纳斯达克股市的新浪股票的评级由“持有”变为“卖出”，理由是政府规则干预的风险。
The site, which started primarily as a web portal, launched its weibo service two years ago and has seen its shares nearly triple in value. In the last three months alone the company has signed up nearly 80 million new micro-blog accounts.
新浪，这个开始以门户网站起家的网站，2年前发布了其微博服务，并且其股份几乎是原来的3倍。在过去的3个月里，新浪微博的新用户增长了近乎8000万。
Some of them may have been the thousands that mocked the latest campaign.
这些人中可能有很多都是为了讽刺最近政府的这些举措而注册的用户。
“There're so many rumors in the world. Do you really need to explain them to me one by one?” wrote a micro-blogger named WeMarketing. “In fact, without those announcements, I wouldn’t have even heard of those rumors.”
“这个世界上有太多流言，你真的需要一条一条地解释吗？事实上，如果没有那些所谓的澄清，我根本就不知道这些流言。”一位名为WeMarketing的微博用户这样写到。
A micro-blogger named Xiqing Qiu wrote: “Can Sina stop sending me these announcements about anti-rumors? Is this a double negative denial? You think I'll believe you once you say it's a rumor?”
一位名为Xiqing Qiu的微博用户写到：“新浪能不能不要再给我发送这些辟谣的通知了？这是不是一个双重否定的否认？你认为只要你说它是流言我就会信吗？”
Ironically, the government’s tight control on information and media is largely cited as the reason China has been so susceptible to hearsay. The problem is anything but new.
不得不说，政府这种对信息和媒体的紧控，其作用可能适得其反，似乎更加说明其对流言脆弱的承受力。
One famous Chinese proverb, nearly 3,000 years old, says: “Trying to stop people’s mouths is like trying to stop a flood.”
大约3000年前，中国就有句古语：“防民之口，甚于防川。”