評(píng)論
打印
One arm of the crackdown on dissidents originates from offices and homes in and around Riyadh,
鎮(zhèn)壓異見人士的行動(dòng)一部分來(lái)自利雅得及周邊地區(qū)的辦公室和家庭，
where hundreds of young men hunt on Twitter for voices and conversations to silence.
在那里，數(shù)以百計(jì)的年輕人在推特上搜尋他們要壓制的言論和對(duì)話。
This is the troll farm, described by three people briefed on the project and the messages among group members.
這就是三位該項(xiàng)目以及內(nèi)部成員之間傳閱的資料的知情人士描述過(guò)的那個(gè)“巨魔農(nóng)場(chǎng)”。
Its directors routinely discuss ways to combat dissent, settling on sensitive themes like the war in Yemen or women’s rights.
農(nóng)場(chǎng)的負(fù)責(zé)人會(huì)按時(shí)跟那些人討論如何打擊異議，如何應(yīng)對(duì)也門戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)或婦女權(quán)利這樣的敏感話題。
They then turn to their well-organized army of “social media specialists” via group chats in apps like WhatsApp and Telegram,
之后，他們便通過(guò)WhatsApp和Telegram等應(yīng)用的群聊，向其麾下組織良好的“社交媒體專家”隊(duì)伍下達(dá)任務(wù)，
sending them lists of people to threaten, insult and intimidate; daily tweet quotas to fill; and pro-government messages to augment.
分發(fā)他們需要威脅，侮辱或恐嚇的人員名單；每日需要完成的推特定額；以及需要他們吹噓的親政府信息。
The bosses also send memes that their employees can use to mock dissenters,
頭目們還會(huì)給員工發(fā)諷刺異見人士的表情包，
like an image of Crown Prince Mohammed dancing with a sword,
比如王儲(chǔ)穆罕默德舞劍的表情包，
akin to the cartoons of Pepe the Frog that supporters of President Trump used to undermine opponents.
該表情包與特朗普的支持者們用來(lái)打擊對(duì)手的青蛙佩佩漫畫如出一轍。
The specialists scour Twitter for conversations on the assigned topics and post messages from the several accounts they each run.
這些專家會(huì)對(duì)推特上指定主題的相關(guān)對(duì)話進(jìn)行徹底搜索，并用他們各自運(yùn)營(yíng)的多個(gè)賬戶發(fā)布各種消息。
Sometimes, when contentious discussions take off,
有時(shí)，當(dāng)頗具爭(zhēng)議的話題討論非常熱烈時(shí)，
they publish pornographic images to goose engagement with their own posts and distract users from more relevant conversations.
他們就會(huì)發(fā)布色情圖片，將大家吸引過(guò)去參與他們的互動(dòng)，從而轉(zhuǎn)移用戶對(duì)更多相關(guān)對(duì)話的注意力。
Other times, if one account is blocked by too many other users, they simply close it and open a new one.
其他時(shí)候，如果一個(gè)帳戶被太多其他用戶屏蔽了，他們就直接關(guān)掉那個(gè)賬戶重開一個(gè)。
In one conversation viewed by The Times,
《泰晤士報(bào)》看到的一個(gè)對(duì)話中，
dozens of leaders decided to mute critics of Saudi Arabia’s military attacks on Yemen by reporting the messages to Twitter as “sensitive.”
數(shù)十名領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人一致決定壓制那些批判沙特對(duì)也門發(fā)動(dòng)軍事襲擊的人士，將那些人的信息以“內(nèi)容敏感”為由舉報(bào)給推特官方。
Such reported posts are one of the things Twitter considers as signals when it decides to hide content from other users, blunting its impact.
這類舉報(bào)的貼文只是推特認(rèn)為他們決定隱藏內(nèi)容以免其他用戶看到從而削弱其影響力的信號(hào)之一。
Twitter has had difficulty combating the trolls.
那些巨魔推特很難對(duì)付。
The company can detect and disable the machine-like behaviors of bot accounts,
推特能夠檢測(cè)到機(jī)器人賬戶的機(jī)械行為并使其失效，
but it has a harder time picking up on the humans tweeting on behalf of the Saudi government.
但它很難識(shí)別代表沙特政府的人為發(fā)布的推文。
The specialists found the jobs through Twitter itself,
那些專家恰好都是看了推特上的廣告找到的工作，
responding to ads that said only that an employer sought young men willing to tweet for about 10,000 Saudi riyals a month, equivalent to about $3,000.
而那些廣告的內(nèi)容只說(shuō)了某雇主需要愿意發(fā)推文的年輕男子，月薪1萬(wàn)里亞爾，約3000美元。
The political nature of the work was revealed only after they were interviewed and expressed interest in the job.
只有在他們接受面試并表達(dá)了對(duì)這項(xiàng)工作的興趣后他們才會(huì)被告知這份工作的政治性。
According to the people The Times interviewed,
據(jù)接受《泰晤士報(bào)》采訪的人士，
some of the specialists felt they would have been targeted as possible dissenters themselves if they had turned down the job.
一些專家感覺到如果他們拒絕這份工作，他們自己便可能被當(dāng)做異見人士對(duì)待。
The specialists heard directors speak often of Mr. Qahtani.
那些專家經(jīng)常聽到他們的負(fù)責(zé)人提及卡塔尼先生。
Labeled by activists and writers as the “troll master,” “Saudi Arabia’s Steve Bannon” and “l(fā)ord of the flies” —
卡塔尼先生，經(jīng)常被活動(dòng)家和作家稱之為“巨魔之主”，“沙特阿拉伯的史蒂夫·班農(nóng)”或“蠅王”——
for the bots and online attackers sometimes called “flies” by their victims —
因?yàn)闄C(jī)器人和網(wǎng)絡(luò)攻擊者有時(shí)會(huì)被他們的受害者稱為“蒼蠅”——
Mr. Qahtani had gained influence since the young crown prince consolidated power.
是在年輕的王儲(chǔ)開始鞏固權(quán)力之后聲名鵲起的。
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