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Citizens in countries with repressive governments have long used Tor to circumvent firewalls and evade government surveillance.
長期以來，身處專制政府領導的國家的公民一直在用Tor突破防火墻，規避政府監督。
“As a precaution, we are alerting you that your Twitter account is one of a small group of accounts that may have been targeted by state-sponsored actors,”
“為了謹慎起見，我們提醒您，有一小部分推特賬戶可能落入了一些國家支持的行動者的目標范圍，您的賬戶就在其中。”
the emails from Twitter said.
推特發送給用戶的電子郵件寫到。
The Saudis’ sometimes ruthless image-making campaign is also a byproduct of the kingdom’s increasingly fragile position internationally.
沙特人為了打造良好的國際形象，有時不惜采取殘忍的手段，這也是沙特王國的國際地位日趨脆弱所致。
For decades, their coffers bursting from the world’s thirst for oil,
幾十年來，沙特的金庫靠著世人對石油的渴望日漸充實，
Saudi leaders cared little about what other countries thought of the kingdom, its governance or its anachronistic restrictions on women.
沙特領導人也不在意外界對他們的王國，對他們治理國家的方式以及他們對婦女抱殘守缺般的禁錮作何感想。
But Saudi Arabia is confronting a more uncertain economic future as oil prices have fallen and competition among energy suppliers has grown,
然而，隨著石油價格下跌，能源供應商之間的競爭加劇，
and Crown Prince Mohammed has tried relentlessly to attract foreign investment into the country —
王儲穆罕默德又一直不遺余力地吸引外國投資進入該國——
in part by portraying it as a vibrant, more socially progressive country than it once was.
手段之一便是將沙特描繪成一個充滿活力，較過去也更為進步的國家——沙特經濟的未來已經愈加不穩。
Yet the government’s social media manipulation tracks with crackdowns in recent years in other authoritarian states,
然而，最近幾年，沙特政府操控社交媒體的行為與其他專制國家的鎮壓活動并無不同，
said Alexei Abrahams, a research fellow at Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto.
多倫多大學公民實驗室的研究員阿列克謝·亞伯拉罕斯說到。
Even for conversations involving millions of tweets, a few hundred or a few thousand influential accounts drive the discussion, he said, citing new research.
即使是涉及數百萬條推文的網絡對話，也有幾百甚至幾千個大V賬戶引導人們的討論，他援引某新研究說到。
The Saudi government appears to have realized this and tried to take control of the conversation, he added.
他補充說，沙特政府似乎意識到了這一點并試圖控制談話。
“From the regime’s point of view,” he said, “if there are only a few thousand accounts driving the discourse,
“從沙特政府的角度來看，”他說，“如果只有幾千個賬戶在引導網民們的討論的話，
you can just buy or threaten the activists, and that significantly shapes the conversation.”
你只需要收買或者威脅其中的活躍分子就可以了，這樣能夠有效改變討論的風向?！?/div>
As the Saudi government tried to remake its image, it carefully tracked how some of its more controversial decisions were received,
試圖改換自己形象的沙特政府仔細地追查人們對他們爭議較大的決定的反應，
and how the country’s most influential citizens online shaped those perceptions.
以及最有影響力的沙特公民在網上對大家的看法的影響。
After the country announced economic austerity measures in 2015 to offset low oil prices and control a widening budget gap,
2015年該國宣布經濟緊縮政策，以抵消油價降級的影響并控制日益擴大的預算缺口之后，
McKinsey & Company, the consulting firm, measured the public reception of those policies.
咨詢公司麥肯錫對這些政策的民意進行了調查。
In a nine-page report, a copy of which was obtained by The Times,
在一份長達9頁的報告——這是《泰晤士報》拿到的一份復印件——中，
McKinsey found that the measures received twice as much coverage on Twitter as in the country’s traditional news media or blogs,
麥肯錫發現，這些措施在推特上的報道量是在該國傳統新聞媒體或博客上的報道量的兩倍，
and that negative sentiment far outweighed positive reactions on social media.
而且，社交媒體上反映出來的負面反應遠超過正面反應。
Three people were driving the conversation on Twitter, the firm found: the writer Khalid al-Alkami;
該公司還發現，推動網民討論的主要人物有三個：作家哈立德·阿爾卡米；
Mr. Abdulaziz, the young dissident living in Canada; and an anonymous user who went by Ahmad.
阿卜杜勒阿齊茲，就是那位生活在加拿大的異見人士；此外還有一名自稱“艾哈邁德”的匿名用戶。
After the report was issued, Mr. Alkami was arrested, the human rights group ALQST said.
報告發布后，阿爾卡米先生被捕，人權組織ALQST透露。
Mr. Abdulaziz said that Saudi government officials imprisoned two of his brothers and hacked his cellphone, an account supported by a researcher at Citizen Lab.
阿卜杜拉齊茲先生說，沙特政府官員囚禁了他的兩個兄弟，還破解了他的手機，他的賬戶是公民實驗室某研究員提供支持的。
Ahmad, the anonymous account, was shut down.
艾哈邁德的賬戶，就是那個匿名賬戶，也被關閉了。
McKinsey said the austerity report was an internal document based on publicly available information and not prepared for any government entity.
麥肯錫表示，緊縮報告是基于公開信息整理成的內部文件，并未準備給任何政府部門。
“We are horrified by the possibility, however remote, that it could have been misused,” a McKinsey spokesman said in a statement.
“該報告可能，無論可能性有多小，被他人利用了，對此我們感到十分震驚，” 麥肯錫發言人在一份聲明中表示。
"We have seen no evidence to suggest that it was misused,
“目前我們還沒有拿到任何證明數據已經被利用的證據，
but we are urgently investigating how and with whom the document was shared.”
但我們正在緊急調查該文件的分享方式及分享對象?！?/p>
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