評論
打印
Leaders
領導者
Taming the titans
馴服巨人
Google, Facebook and Amazon are increasingly dominant. How should they be controlled?
谷歌、Facebook和亞馬遜的統治力越來越強。該如何控制它們？
Not long ago, being the boss of a big Western tech firm was a dream job.
不久前，在大型西方科技公司做老板還是一份讓人夢寐以求的工作。
As the billions rolled in, so did the plaudits: Google, Facebook, Amazon and others were making the world a better place.
在億萬財富滾滾而來之時，還能收獲交口稱贊：谷歌、Facebook、亞馬遜等公司正讓世界變得更加美好。
Today these companies are accused of being BAADD—big, anti-competitive, addictive and destructive to democracy.
而今天，這些公司備受指責——規模太大、反競爭、令人上癮、破壞民主。
Regulators fine them, politicians grill them and one-time backers warn of their power to cause harm.
監管機構對它們開出罰單，政客對它們嚴厲質詢，曾經的支持者也發出警告，指出它們勢力過大，可能造成危害。
Much of this techlash is misguided. The presumption that big businesses must necessarily be wicked is plain wrong.
大部分對科技企業的抵制都有失偏頗。大企業一定就邪惡這種推斷完全錯誤。
Apple is to be admired as the world’s most valuable listed company for the simple reason that it makes things people want to buy, even while facing fierce competition.
世界上市值最高的上市公司蘋果廣受尊重，原因很簡單：即便面臨激烈的競爭，蘋果仍能生產出消費者愿意買單的產品。
Many online services would be worse if their providers were smaller. Evidence for the link between smartphones and unhappiness is weak.
如果在線服務供應商的規模比實際上要小，很多服務的質量就要打折扣。沒有強有力的證據證明智能手機與幸福感低之間有關聯。
Fake news is not only an online phenomenon.
假新聞也并非網絡獨有。
But big tech platforms, particularly Facebook, Google and Amazon, do indeed raise a worry about fair competition.
然而大型科技平臺確實引發了對公平競爭的擔憂，特別是Facebook、谷歌和亞馬遜。
That is partly because they often benefit from legal exemptions.
原因之一是它們經常因免于承擔法律責任而受益。
Unlike publishers, Facebook and Google are rarely held responsible for what users do on them; and for years most American buyers on Amazon did not pay sales tax.
與出版商不同，Facebook和谷歌很少為用戶在其平臺上的行為負責。多年來，亞馬遜上的大部分美國買家都沒有支付消費稅。
Nor do the titans simply compete in a market. Increasingly, they are the market itself, providing the infrastructure (or “platforms”) for much of the digital economy.
這幾個超級巨頭也不只是在市場上競爭，它們正日益變成市場本身，為大部分數字經濟提供基礎設施（即“平臺”）。
Many of their services appear to be free, but users “pay” for them by giving away their data.
它們的許多服務看似免費，但用戶在交出自己的數據時實際就在“付費”了。
Powerful though they already are, their huge stockmarket valuations suggest that investors are counting on them to double or even triple in size in the next decade.
盡管它們已經實力強大，但其巨大的市值表明，投資者期待未來十年它們的規模能再增加一倍甚至兩倍。
There is thus a justified fear that the tech titans will use their power to protect and extend their dominance, to the detriment of consumers.
因此有理由擔心，科技巨頭會利用自身實力來保護和擴大它們的主導地位，進而損害消費者的利益。
The tricky task for policymakers is to restrain them without unduly stifling innovation.
政策制定者面臨的棘手任務是既要約束它們，又要避免過度約束而扼殺創新。
譯文來源考研英語時事閱讀
