Social networks 社交网络
A friendly portrait 一副友好的肖像画
Facebook: The Inside Story. 《Facebook：内部故事》By Steven Levy.Blue Rider Press, 583 pages.
Feb 29th 2020 | words 740
“I WOULD ALWAYS say to regulators,‘Look, bad things happen in human society, therefore bad things happen on Facebook’.” So said Chris Kelly, an ex-Facebooker once in charge of the social network’s privacy policies, to Steven Levy, a veteran technology journalist whose book about Facebook was published on February 25th. Mr Kelly was recounting v. 讲述，叙述 conversations with officials in 2007, amid early rumblings [ usually pl. ] things that people are saying that may not be true SYN rumour 传言；传闻；谣传 about Facebook’s seamier 丑恶，阴暗 side—specifically the ease with which children could find questionable content, such as a group named “I’m Curious About Incest”.
“对于监管机构，我时常挂在嘴边的话就是 '你看，天有不测风云，人类社会中坏事屡见不鲜，所以Facebook发生些不好的事也很正常。' ”Chris Kelly对Steven Levy说，他们一位是曾在脸书负责社交网络隐私政策员工，一位是科技领域的资深记者，该记者在2月25日出版了一本关于Facebook的书。Kelly讲述了2007年与高管的对话，承认早期传闻中Facebook的阴暗面——尤其是那次平息舆论风波事件，即儿童能在Facebook看到有争议内容的，比如一个名为“我对乱伦很好奇”的小组。
More than a decade on, Facebook claims 2.5bn people—a third of humanity—as users. The charge sheet against the company has grown as well. It has been accused of spreading fake news, facilitating paedophilia n. 恋童癖, and allowing countries to interfere in each other’s elections. Mr Levy’s book offers a ringside view of the growth of one of the world’s biggest companies, and of the backlash ~ (against sth)~ (from sb) a strong negative reaction by a large number of people, for example to sth that has recently changed in society （对社会变动等的）强烈抵制，集体反对 it has provoked. Other books, and even a Hollywood film, have chronicled 编年史 the firm’s rise. But Mr Levy’s effort is fresh, up-to-date and insiderish. Thanks to the indulgence of the firm’s boss, Mark Zuckerberg, he had the run of its California headquarters and its denizens N-COUNT A denizen of a particular place is a person, animal, or plant that lives or grows in this place. 生活在特定地方的人(动物或植物).
十多年前，Facebook已有25亿注册用户，这个巨额的数字相当于全球1/3的人口。同样，该公司的案情记录也在不断增长。它曾以传播虚假消息、作为恋童癖的温床、默许国家间互相干预彼此的竞选为由被控告。Levy的著作近距离地观察并记录了全球最大公司之一Facebook的成长史，以及它引起的抵制运动。早前其他的著作，包括好莱坞的一部电影，也记录了Facebook的历程，但Levy的书内容更新，而且是由内部知情人士提供的。也多亏了扎克伯格先生的配合，才能成就他这次加州总部之旅。
ring·side n. /ˈrɪŋsaɪd/ [ U] the area closest to the space in which a boxing match or circus takes place （拳击场或马戏表演场等的）场边，台边区
Such access can be a reporter’s blessing. It has long been apparent from the outside that Facebook grew so quickly that its employees had little time to grapple with all the implications, even those that would become central to the business. But it is still noteworthy to hear interviewees confirm as much to Mr Levy in their own words. Carolyn Everson, an advertising executive at Microsoft, was poached to head advertising sales at Facebook in 2011. Ms Everson assumed that her new employer knew what it was doing—after all, it was already raking in hundreds of millions of dollars. She was quickly disabused of that notion: “[Facebook] didn’t have everything figured out…everything was brand-new and [they were] still building.”
对于一个记者来说，这种经历就显得弥足珍贵。 一直以来，在外人眼中Facebook的成长过快，以至于它的员工，即使是那些即将步入领导层的人，也无法在短时间内就解决所有出现的问题。但Levy认为从他们自己口中讲出的故事，内部的观点是很有参考价值的。Carolyn Everson曾任微软公关执行一职，2011年被Facebook挖走，成为了广告销售总监。Everson以为老板对公司发展有清晰的脉络，毕竟那是它已经是赚了好几亿美元的大公司了。谁知她很快就意识到，“其实它自己也没搞明白，全是新生事物，这个公司还没成熟。”
In 2008 Mr Zuckerberg hired Sheryl Sandberg, a Google executive, to be Facebook’s chief operating officer, handing off responsibility for everything not directly related to building Facebook’s product. (It would take him a decade, writes Mr Levy, to realise that such a division of labour was a mistake.) Facebook’s board upbraided upbraid /ʌpˈbreɪd/ V-T If you upbraid someone, you tell them that they have done something wrong and criticize them for doing it. 责骂 both of them for not spotting a Russian misinformation campaign designed to influence America’s election in 2016. When subsequently asked by Mr Levy whether he thought she had “let him down”, Mr Zuckerberg offers only a pause, followed by a non-committal response.
2008年，扎克伯格聘请了前谷歌执行官Sheryl Sandberg作为首席运营官，将除了Facebook产品直接相关以外的所有权限交给了他。（Levy在书中写道，可能得要十年之后，他才会意识到这样的分工是错误的。）正是由于这样的分工，他们俩没能察觉到俄罗斯对2016年美国大选的误导信息干预，因此受到了Facebook董事会的责难。当被问及Sandberg是否让你觉得失望时，扎克伯格沉默了一阵，并没有否认。
The author’s access risks putting him in thrall to his subject. He is not afraid to chronicle Facebook’s failures. But his tone is occasionally fawning. He recounts how Mr Zuckerberg reacted to a question about the wisdom of Instagram’s founders selling their photo-sharing app to Facebook “as if he were a chess grandmaster, startled by a move from an inferior player who suddenly shifted the board to his disadvantage”. At times Mr Levy can seem too quick to accept the tech industry’s macho self-image, for instance in his description of an internal team charged with driving new users to Facebook as “a data-driven Dirty Dozen armed with spreadsheets instead of combat rifles”.
thrall n. /θrɔːl/ IDIOMS 习语 IN (SB'S/STH'S) ˈTHRALL IN ˈTHRALL TO SB/STH
( literary ) controlled or strongly influenced by sb/sth 受…控制；深受…影响
作者的访问风险使他受到被访问者的影响，他不害怕记录Facebook的失败经历，但他叙述的语气时而带着些谄媚。他记录下了扎克伯格对一些问题的反应，比如INS创始人把其照片分享APP卖给Facebook是明智之举时写道“他就像个国际象棋大师，被一匹黑马左右了局势”。有时Levy又太快接受科技行业大男子主义的自我形象，比如一个负责为Facebook引流的外包团队被他描述成“拿着数据表而不是步枪的数据十二金刚”。
In recent years Facebook has hired legions of moderators to check up on its users, and fortified them with automated monitoring systems. But its chief defence against accusations of harm is one to which Mr Levy seems mostly sympathetic: that from the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made, not even a social network. It is a belief that Mr Zuckerberg seems to hold sincerely. It is tactically useful, too, because while it contains more than a grain of truth, it also minimises the firm’s culpability 过失.
fortify /ˈfɔːtɪˌfaɪ/ To fortify a place means to make it stronger and more difficult to attack, often by building a wall or ditch round it. (常通过筑墙、挖沟等) 巩固 (某地)
近几年Facebook聘请了大批的版主审核用户发布的内容，加强自动监测系统。但在众多伤害指控中最让Levy感到为惋惜的是人类历程曲折，没有什么事情是一帆风顺的，又怎能祈求让社交网络风平浪静呢？这也是扎克伯格坚持的一点，从策略上来说也非常有用，因为它不仅很有道理，还能使公司的过失责任最小化。
In the end, Mr Levy sees Mr Zuckerberg as a Utopian genius undone by the world’s lamentable 可悲的，哀伤的 wickedness; a man who “set out to connect a world that was perhaps not ready to be connected”. Not everyone will be so generous.
书的最后，Levy将扎克伯格比作被这个真实世界打败的乌托邦天才；一个男人“尝试连接一个没有准备好被连接在一起的世界”，并不是每个人都能像他这般无私的。
网友评论