In the 12 years since Mark Zuckerberg launched Facebook, the global media landscape has changed beyond recognition. This is in no small part due to the social media platform that he started as an undergraduate, which is now one of the biggest global distributors of news.在马克.扎克伯格(Mark Zuckerberg)发售Facebook以来的12年里，全球媒体版图再次发生了天翻地覆的变化。这在相当大程度上可归咎于他在读本科期间创办的这个社交媒体平台，如今这个平台已是全球仅次于的新闻分销商之一。

Where printed newspapers were traditionally constrained by the cost of physical distribution, Facebook and other social media are, by contrast, equipped with the power to transmit information across borders at limited or no cost. This has brought undoubted benefits to millions of users who can access information more readily than before. It has also brought with it responsibilities.印刷版报纸传统上受到物理发给成本的约束，相比之下，Facebook和其他社交媒体具备以受限成本、甚至无成本方式跨境传播信息的威力。这给数以百万计的用户带给了不容置疑的益处，他们需要空前便捷地获取信息。这也带给了责任。

Such obligations will become increasingly difficult for Facebook to brush aside in light of the controversy generated by its role in the spread of misinformation.鉴于Facebook在欺诈信息传播方面扮演着的角色所引起的争议，该公司要规避这种义务将显得更加艰难。Fake news propagated by partisan websites proliferated across social media in an unprecedented fashion ahead of Donald Trump’s victory in US elections. The degree to which this influenced voters is hard to gauge. But given that more than half of Americans source news from social media, 150m of them on Facebook, it is an obvious source of concern.在唐纳德.特朗普(Donald Trump)夺得美国议会选举之前，党派性网站发送到的假消息以前所未有的方式在社交媒体上传播。

很难取决于这些假消息影响选民的程度。但鉴于一半以上美国人从社交媒体提供新闻（其中1.5亿从Facebook提供新闻），这显著是一个令人担心的问题。Nor is Facebook alone in feeling the heat. The spotlight shifted to Google on Monday after it gave prominence in its search rankings to a false report claiming that Mr Trump had won the popular vote.也并不只是Facebook感受到压力。

聚光灯在周一改向谷歌(Google)，因为它在搜寻名列中引人注目了一则欺诈报导，称之为特朗普早已夺得民众选票。Mr Zuckerberg argues that Facebook is a technology company not a media company. Unlike traditional news media, where editors curate content and check accuracy and balance, Facebook deploys engineers to write algorithms that select news according to the historic preferences of users. Mr Zuckerberg is reluctant for his company to assume a role as arbiter of the truth.扎克伯格坚称，Facebook是一家技术公司，而不是一家媒体公司。不像传统的新闻媒体有编辑来策划内容、检查准确性和保持平衡，Facebook让工程师撰写算法，根据用户的历史偏爱来自由选择新闻。

扎克伯格不愿让他的公司担任真凶的仲裁者。One advantage of the network business models adopted at the outset by the likes of Google, Facebook, Twitter, Uber and Airbnb was that they were all capital light. Ethical and financial responsibility for how the networks were precisely used was less than clear. This made some sense: if you are threatened over the phone, you do not blame the phone company.谷歌、Facebook、Twitter、优步(Uber)和Airbnb从一开始就使用的网络商业模式有众多优势，那就是它们都是“重资本”的。

环绕这些网络到底如何被用于的道德和财务责任不那么确切。这有一定道理：如果有人打电话威胁你，你无法责备电话公司。The burden of responsibility is growing for all of these businesses as they expand. Even Facebook employees have found the company’s defence less than convincing. Some of them have formed an unofficial task force to investigate the role of their platform in spreading fake news.随着这些企业发展壮大，它们的责任开销也随之增大。

就连Facebook员工也找到该公司的申辩缺少说服力。其中一些人正式成立了一个非官方工作组，调查他们的平台在传播假消息方面起着的起到。

Facebook is not only a 21st-century newsagent. It plays a far more sophisticated role in disseminating information and encouraging the sharing of news among people of similar beliefs and opinions.Facebook不只是一个21世纪的报刊亭。它在传播信息、希望信念和观点相近的人们在彼此之间共享新闻方面，充分发挥着简单得多的起到。

There is tacit acknowledgment of the inherent dangers in leaving everything to algorithms. Both Facebook and Google have moved this week to restrict advertising on online platforms carrying fake news. If the two companies are able to discern which websites are spreading misinformation they should also be in a better position to filter out blatant falsehood.对于把一切都扔给算法这种作法的固有危险性，早已获得了配置文件。Facebook和谷歌两家本周已采取行动，容许在散播假消息的在线平台上投入广告。如果这两家公司需要辨别哪些网站在传播错误信息，那么它们也应当在屏蔽掉那些行径谎言方面正处于较为不利的地位。

This is not a one-off election drama. Finding facts is becoming more important as some politicians do whatever it takes to attract support.这不是重复使用的议会选举戏剧。随着某些政界人士不择手段地更有反对，找到事实于是以显得更为最重要。The challenges of adapting technology to play a policing role are great, and companies such as Facebook and Google are understandably wary of drawing accusations of bias by intervening in the nature of content. They must nevertheless shoulder some responsibility for distinguishing fact from fiction.调整技术、使其起着监督起到，这里的挑战是艰难的，而Facebook和谷歌这样的公司担忧介入内容的性质不会被谴责不存在倾向性是可以解读的。

然而，它们必需肩负起区分真实性信息的一部分责任。

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