Social media companies are advertising companies. This has never been a secret, of course.
社交媒体公司都是广告公司。当然，这从来都不是秘密。
Google pioneered the targeted advertising business model in the late 90s, and Sheryl Sandberg brought the practice to Facebook in 2008 when she joined the company as chief operating officer.
20世纪90年代末，谷歌开创了定向广告这种商业模式。2008年，曾担任谷歌高管的雪莉·桑德伯格 (Sheryl Sandberg) 加入 Facebook 并担任首席运营官，随之将这种模式带了过来 。
The cash was flowing in, and companies around Silicon Valley and beyond adopted the same basic strategy: first, grow the user base as quickly as possible without worrying about revenue; second, collect as much data as possible about the users; third, monetize that information by performing big data analytics in order to show users advertising that is narrowly tailored to their demographics and revealed interests; fourth, profit.
钱开始流进来，硅谷内外的公司都采用了同样的基本策略：首先，不担心收入问题，尽快扩大用户基础；其次，尽量收集用户数据；然后，进行大数据分析，向用户展示严格符合他们的个人资料和所流露的兴趣的广告，借此将收集到的信息变现；最后，坐等盈利。
For a while this seemed like a win-win: people around the world could watch cat videos, see pictures of each others' babies in Halloween costumes, connect with family, friends, and colleagues around the globe, and more. In return, companies would show them ads that were actually relevant to them. Contextual advertising had supported the print and broadcast media for decades, so this was the logical next step. What could possibly go wrong?
这一度看上去像是一种双赢：世界各地的人们都可以看各种猫咪视频，看别人家的宝宝穿着万圣节服装的照片，与地球其他地方的家人、朋友和同事联系，等等。作为回报，社交媒体公司会向他们展示与他们实际相关的广告。内容关联广告养了印刷媒体和传播媒体几十年，说它是大势所趋也合乎情理。能出什么问题呢？
Plenty, as it turns out. From today's vantage point, the Arab Spring stands out as an iconic cautionary tale of techno-utopianism gone wrong. Sure, would-be revolutionaries, reformers, and human rights defenders were among the first to master the power of what we used to call "Web 2.0," but authorities caught on quickly and used the new tools to crack down on threats to their grasp on power.
事实证明，出了很多问题。站在如今的有利位置来看，“阿拉伯之春”是一个反映科技乌托邦主义的典型警示性事件。当然，当时的那些准革命者、准改革者和准人权维护者们是最早掌握我们过去所说的 "Web 2.0" 的力量的人中的一部分，但是权力机构也反应很快，并且利用了各种新工具打压会威胁到他们掌权的事物。
Similarly, the 2008 Obama campaign was the first to harness online advertising to reach the right voters with the right message with near-surgical precision, but 10 years later the same techniques are propelling right-wing authoritarians to power in the US, the Philippines, and Brazil, and being used to fan the flames of xenophobia, racial hatred, and even genocide around the world—perhaps most devastatingly in Myanmar.
同样，2008 年奥巴马竞选班子首次利用网络广告以近乎外科手术标准的精确度将最适当的信息传达给最合适的选民，但是 10 年后，同样的技术正在美国、菲律宾和巴西把右翼独裁主义者推上高位，并且在世界各地被用于煽动仇外情绪、种族仇恨、甚至种族屠杀——也许缅甸的情况是最具毁灭性的。
原文节选自：Facebook and Google's Targeted Advertising Is Ruining the Internet and Breaking the World, Dr. Nathalie Maréchal, motherboard.vice.com
声明：本篇中的翻译属本人原创，仅供学习交流使用，请勿用于商业目的。
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