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"Big tobacco" is what the bosses of several large technology firms have started calling Facebook in private and in public.
幾家大型科技公司的老板們已經開始在私底下和公開場合稱臉書是“煙草大公司”。
The company has spent the past year fending off critics who claim it is addictive, bad for democracy and overdue for a regulatory reckoning.
這家公司在過去一年的時間里都在躲避那些批評聲，他們稱臉書讓人上癮，不利于民主，監管部門監管不到位。
Being compared to the tobacco giants is one of the business world's more toxic insults, but it is not the only unflattering analogy circulating.
將一家公司與煙草巨頭相比較，這在商業界中是最為惡毒的侮辱，但這并不是針對臉書的唯一個耿直的類比。
A lower blow is the suggestion that Facebook may become like Yahoo, the once high-flying internet firm that plunged.
更low的一擊是暗示臉書可能成為下一個雅虎，一家曾經非常成功而現在卻沒落的互聯網公。
Even a year ago the idea would have been unthinkable.
即便是在一年前，這種想法還是無法想象的。
The social-networking giant, which runs Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger as well as its own core service, was thriving.
當時，這家運營著Instagram、WhatsApp、Facebook Messenger和公司自身核心服務的社交網絡巨頭還在蓬勃發展。
But since January it has become mired in a series of controversies, misjudgments and missteps.
但自一月以來，這家公司陷入了一系列爭議、誤判和失誤的泥潭之中。
It became clear that it had done too little to stop Russian interference in America's election in 2016.
很明顯這家公司在阻止俄羅斯干涉2016年美國選舉中幾乎無所作為。
It had to admit that it had shared the personal data of 90m users with outside firms without permission. It later suffered a data breach affecting 50m users.
它不得不承認，公司在未經用戶的許可下和其他外部公司共享了九千萬用戶的個人數據。之后它又碰上了涉及五千萬用戶的數據外泄。
The past week has brought more bad news.
過去一周的壞消息更多。
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's chief executive, has been forced onto the airwaves to defend his second-in-command, Sheryl Sandberg,
臉書CEO馬克·扎克伯格被迫接受電視采訪為公司的副主管雪莉·桑德伯格辯護，
after the New York Times on November 14th published a report
此前11月14日《紐約時報》曾發表一篇報道
alleging that they had tried to downplay the extent of Russian electoral interference to the firm's board of directors,
宣稱他們曾試圖向公司董事會弱化俄羅斯干涉選舉的程度，
and hired lobbyists and the kind of "opposition-research" firms commonly used in political campaigns, to deflect blame onto other firms and to tarnish critics.
并聘請說客以及那些政治運動中普遍使用的“反向研究”將責任推給其他公司并抹黑那些評論人士。
The revelations have cemented the idea that Facebook is "grossly mismanaged", says an advertising executive. Its shares have fallen by 27% since the start of the year.
一位廣告經理表示，這些披露更讓人們認為臉書的“管理極其不善”。自今年年初，公司股價下跌27%。
The comparison to Yahoo is imperfect. Even at its peak Yahoo never boasted a business as large and profitable as Facebook's.
把臉書比作雅虎并不恰當。即便是在巔峰時期，雅虎的規模和利潤均無法于臉書相匹敵。
And the competitive landscape was different. One of the main reasons Yahoo declined is because it lost out to a powerful rival, Google, in online search;
兩家的競爭格局也不一樣。雅虎衰敗的主要原因之一是因為它在在線搜索領域輸給了強大競爭對手谷歌；
Marissa Mayer, its boss from 2012 until its sale to Verizon last year, was unable to restore advertisers' or employees' confidence as users left.
自2012年到去年威瑞森收購該公司，CEO瑪麗莎·梅耶爾都沒能挽回廣告商或員工們因客戶流失而失去的信心。
Today there is no company that truly competes with Facebook's suite of apps,
如今沒有一家公司真的可以與臉書的app相競爭，
partly because it has hoovered up competitors such as Instagram, the wildly successful photo app that is at the centre of its future plans.
部分原因是因為臉書收購了它的競爭對手，如Instagram，這個非常成功的拍照app是臉書未來計劃的核心。
But people who watched Yahoo's collapse see ominous similarities.
但是目睹了雅虎崩塌的人們看到了不祥的相似性。
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