Social networks 社交網(wǎng)絡?
A friendly portrait 一副友好的肖像畫
Facebook: The Inside Story. 《Facebook：內(nèi)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. 講述痕届，敘述 conversations with officials in 2007, amid early rumblings [ usually pl. ] things that people are saying that may not be true SYN rumour 傳言韧献；傳聞；謠傳 about Facebook’s seamier 丑惡研叫，陰暗 side—specifically the ease with which children could find questionable content, such as a group named “I’m Curious About Incest”.
“對于監(jiān)管機構锤窑，我時常掛在嘴邊的話就是 '你看，天有不測風云嚷炉，人類社會中壞事屢見不鮮渊啰，所以Facebook發(fā)生些不好的事也很正常。' ”Chris Kelly對Steven Levy說申屹，他們一位是曾在臉書負責社交網(wǎng)絡隱私政策員工，一位是科技領域的資深記者腐泻，該記者在2月25日出版了一本關于Facebook的書派桩。Kelly講述了2007年與高管的對話，承認早期傳聞中Facebook的陰暗面——尤其是那次平息輿論風波事件蚌斩，即兒童能在Facebook看到有爭議內(nèi)容的窄坦，比如一個名為“我對亂倫很好奇”的小組。
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. 戀童癖, 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 （對社會變動等的）強烈抵制凳寺，集體反對 it has provoked. Other books, and even a Hollywood film, have chronicled 編年史 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(動物或植物).
十多年前盏阶，F(xiàn)acebook已有25億注冊用戶脑慧，這個巨額的數(shù)字相當于全球1/3的人口。同樣砰盐，該公司的案情記錄也在不斷增長闷袒。它曾以傳播虛假消息、作為戀童癖的溫床岩梳、默許國家間互相干預彼此的競選為由被控告囊骤。Levy的著作近距離地觀察并記錄了全球最大公司之一Facebook的成長史，以及它引起的抵制運動冀值。早前其他的著作也物，包括好萊塢的一部電影，也記錄了Facebook的歷程列疗，但Levy的書內(nèi)容更新滑蚯，而且是由內(nèi)部知情人士提供的。也多虧了扎克伯格先生的配合抵栈，才能成就他這次加州總部之旅告材。
ring·side?n. /?r??sa?d/??[?U]?the area closest to the space in which a?boxing?match or?circus?takes place?（拳擊場或馬戲表演場等的）場邊，臺邊區(qū)
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.”
對于一個記者來說古劲，這種經(jīng)歷就顯得彌足珍貴创葡。?一直以來，在外人眼中Facebook的成長過快绢慢，以至于它的員工灿渴，即使是那些即將步入領導層的人洛波，也無法在短時間內(nèi)就解決所有出現(xiàn)的問題。但Levy認為從他們自己口中講出的故事骚露，內(nèi)部的觀點是很有參考價值的蹬挤。Carolyn Everson曾任微軟公關執(zhí)行一職，2011年被Facebook挖走棘幸，成為了廣告銷售總監(jiān)焰扳。Everson以為老板對公司發(fā)展有清晰的脈絡，畢竟那是它已經(jīng)是賺了好幾億美元的大公司了误续。誰知她很快就意識到吨悍，“其實它自己也沒搞明白，全是新生事物蹋嵌，這個公司還沒成熟育瓜。”
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 /?p?bre?d/ V-T If you upbraid someone, you tell them that they have done something wrong and criticize them for doing it. 責罵 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 “l(fā)et him down”, Mr Zuckerberg offers only a pause, followed by a non-committal response.
2008年栽烂，扎克伯格聘請了前谷歌執(zhí)行官Sheryl Sandberg作為首席運營官躏仇，將除了Facebook產(chǎn)品直接相關以外的所有權限交給了他。（Levy在書中寫道腺办，可能得要十年之后焰手，他才會意識到這樣的分工是錯誤的。）正是由于這樣的分工怀喉，他們倆沒能察覺到俄羅斯對2016年美國大選的誤導信息干預书妻，因此受到了Facebook董事會的責難。當被問及Sandberg是否讓你覺得失望時躬拢，扎克伯格沉默了一陣驻子，并沒有否認。
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.? /θr??l/? IDIOMS 習語 IN (SB'S/STH'S) ?THRALL IN ?THRALL TO SB/STH
( literary ) controlled or strongly influenced by sb/sth 受…控制估灿；深受…影響
作者的訪問風險使他受到被訪問者的影響崇呵，他不害怕記錄Facebook的失敗經(jīng)歷，但他敘述的語氣時而帶著些諂媚馅袁。他記錄下了扎克伯格對一些問題的反應域慷，比如INS創(chuàng)始人把其照片分享APP賣給Facebook是明智之舉時寫道“他就像個國際象棋大師，被一匹黑馬左右了局勢”汗销。有時Levy又太快接受科技行業(yè)大男子主義的自我形象犹褒，比如一個負責為Facebook引流的外包團隊被他描述成“拿著數(shù)據(jù)表而不是步槍的數(shù)據(jù)十二金剛”。
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 過失.
fortify /?f??t??fa?/ To fortify a place means to make it stronger and more difficult to attack, often by building a wall or ditch round it. (常通過筑墻弛针、挖溝等) 鞏固 (某地)
近幾年Facebook聘請了大批的版主審核用戶發(fā)布的內(nèi)容叠骑，加強自動監(jiān)測系統(tǒng)。但在眾多傷害指控中最讓Levy感到為惋惜的是人類歷程曲折削茁，沒有什么事情是一帆風順的宙枷，又怎能祈求讓社交網(wǎng)絡風平浪靜呢掉房？這也是扎克伯格堅持的一點，從策略上來說也非常有用慰丛，因為它不僅很有道理卓囚，還能使公司的過失責任最小化。
In the end, Mr Levy sees Mr Zuckerberg as a Utopian genius undone by the world’s lamentable 可悲的诅病，哀傷的 wickedness; a man who “set out to connect a world that was perhaps not ready to be connected”. Not everyone will be so generous.
書的最后哪亿，Levy將扎克伯格比作被這個真實世界打敗的烏托邦天才；一個男人“嘗試連接一個沒有準備好被連接在一起的世界”贤笆，并不是每個人都能像他這般無私的蝇棉。
