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Congress showed the breadth of its investigation into the big tech companies on Friday,
周五，國會展示了調查大型科技企業的調查廣度，
making a public demand for scores of documents, including the personal emails and other communications from dozens of top executives.
公開要求諸企業出示數十份文件，包括數十名高管的私人電子郵件和其他通信資料。
Republicans and Democrats alike on the House Judiciary Committee, which is investigating the market power and behavior of the companies,
眾議院司法委員會正在調查諸企業市場影響力及其商業行為，該委員會的共和黨人和民主黨人不約而同地
sent letters directly to Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Tim Cook of Apple, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Larry Page of Google.
都給亞馬遜的杰夫·貝佐斯、蘋果的蒂姆·庫克、Facebook的馬克·扎克伯格和谷歌的拉里·佩奇寫了信。
The requests called for all communications to and from eight executives at Amazon, 14 at Apple, 15 at Facebook and 14 at Google.
他們要求提供8名亞馬遜高管、14名蘋果高管、15名Facebook高管和14名谷歌高管往來的所有通信。
With the request, which was posted on the committee’s website,
委員會在其網站上公布了這一要求，
the lawmakers sent a not-so-subtle message that executives would be held responsible for the replies,
議員們還不那么隱晦地暗示道，高管們要對他們的回復負責，
and that the investigation would continue to play out publicly.
調查也將繼續公開進行。
That has the potential of damaging the brands’ reputations.
委員會的這一舉措或將損害到這些品牌的聲譽。
The companies, once held up as beacons of American ingenuity and business acumen,
因為散布虛假信息、不尊重用戶隱私以及想方設法避稅，
have been under siege about spreading disinformation, failing to respect users’ privacy and maneuvering to minimize their taxes.
曾經被奉為美國創造力和商業智慧的燈塔的這些企業已經飽受指責。
In addition, President Trump and other Republicans accuse some of the companies of censoring conservative voices.
此外，特朗普總統等共和黨人還指責一些企業審查保守派的聲音。
Similar inquiries are underway at the Justice Department, at the Federal Trade Commission and by attorneys general of dozens of states.
司法部、聯邦貿易委員會以及數十個州的總檢察長也在開展類似的調查。
The investigations are just beginning in earnest.
調查才剛剛開始嚴肅起來。
How far they will go, what they will uncover and whether any allegations will stand up in court are all uncertain.
調查力度多大，揭露哪些問題，是否將指控，無論何種指控，放到法庭上解決，這些問題目前都還不確定。
But the investigations show the growing angst about the power of the tech companies, which for decades faced little regulation.
但調查暴露了人們對這些科技公司的實力的擔憂已經越來越嚴重。數十年來，這些公司受到的監管幾乎為零。
Now Silicon Valley’s influence on everything from how we vote to how we shop is readily apparent —
如今，顯而易見的是，硅谷對我們的影響已經擴展到了包括投票方式和購物方式在內的方方面面——
and yet the technology driving it remains largely mysterious.
但在背后驅動它的技術在很大程度上依然是個謎。
“There is this great and growing dependence on technology that we don’t really understand,”
“我們對技術的依賴性越來越大，但我們并不真正了解這些技術，”
said A. Douglas Melamed, a former antitrust official in Justice Department. “And that frightens people.”
司法部前反壟斷官員道格拉斯梅拉米德說到。“想想都讓人覺得害怕。”
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