Facebook's role in Brexit — and the threat to democracy | Carole Cadwalladr

翻译人员: 功伟 邢 校对人员: Bighead Ge

2016年6月, 英国脱欧投票

So, on the day after the Brexit vote,

in June 2016,

结束后的那天，

when Britain woke up to the shock

当英国醒来后，

of discovering that we're leaving the European Union,

震惊地发现我们将要离开欧盟，

my editor at the "Observer" newspaper in the UK

我在英国《观察者》报纸的编辑

asked me to go back to South Wales, where I grew up, and to write a report.

让我回到威尔士南部去写一份报告， 那是我长大的地方。

And so I went to a town called Ebbw Vale.

于是我去了一个叫埃布谷的小镇。

Here it is.

就在这儿。

It's in the South Wales Valleys, which is this quite special place.

它位于南威尔士山谷， 这是一个非常特别的地方。

So it's had this very, sort of rich, working-class culture,

这里有着浓厚的工人阶级文化，

and it's famous for its Welsh male voice choirs and rugby and its coal.

以威尔士男声合唱团、橄榄球和 煤炭而闻名。

But when I was a teenager, the coal mines and the steelworks closed,

但当我十几岁的时候， 煤矿和钢铁厂都倒闭了，

and the entire area was devastated.

整个地区都衰落了。

And I went there because it had one of the highest "Leave" votes in the country.

我去那里是因为那里出现了 全国最高的“脱欧”票比例。

Sixty-two percent of the people here voted to leave the European Union.

这里62%的人投票决定离开欧盟。

And I wanted to know why.

我想知道为什么。

When I got there, I was just a bit taken aback,

当我到达那里的时候， 我只是有点吃惊，

because the last time I went to Ebbw Vale,

因为上次我去埃布谷的时候，

it looked like this.

它看起来是这样的。

And now, it looks like this.

现在，它看起来像这样。

This is a new 33-million-pound college of further education

这是一所耗资3300万英镑的 继续教育大学，

that was mostly funded by the European Union.

主要由欧盟资助。

And this is the new sports center

这是一个新的体育中心，

that's at the middle of 350-million-pound regeneration project

这是由欧盟资助的3.5亿英镑的

that's being funded by the European Union.

重建项目的中心。

And this is the new 77-million-pound road-improvement scheme,

这是一个新的7700万英镑的 道路改善计划，

and there's a new train line, a new railway station,

还有一条新的铁路线， 一个新的火车站，

and they're all being funded by the European Union.

这些都是由欧盟资助的。

And it's not as if any of this is a secret,

这并不是什么秘密，

因为到处都有这样的大标志。

because there's big signs like this everywhere.

[EU Funds: Investing in Wales]

[欧盟基金:投资威尔士]

(笑声)

(Laughter)

I had this sort of weird sense of unreality,

在小镇上散步的时候，

walking around the town.

我时不时有一种 奇怪的不真实的感觉。

And it came to a head

当我走到体育中心 遇到这个年轻人的时候，

when I met this young man in front of the sports center.

我的想法达到了顶点。

And he told me that he had voted to leave,

他告诉我，他投票决定离开欧盟，

because the European Union had done nothing for him.

因为欧盟没有为他做任何事情。

He was fed up with it.

他受够了。

And all around town, people told me the same thing.

镇上的人都跟我说了同样的话。

They said that they wanted to take back control,

他们说他们想夺回控制权，

which was one of the slogans in the campaign.

这是竞选口号之一。

And they told me that they were most fed up

他们告诉我，

with the immigrants and with the refugees.

他们受够了移民和难民。

They'd had enough.

移民已经太多了。

Which was odd.

这太奇怪了。

Because walking around, I didn't meet any immigrants or refugees.

因为走了这么久， 我没有遇到一个移民或难民。

I met one Polish woman who told me

我遇到一位波兰妇女，她告诉我

she was practically the only foreigner in town.

她几乎是镇上唯一的外国人。

And when I checked the figures,

当我查看这些数据时，

I discovered that Ebbw Vale actually has

我发现埃布谷实际上

one of the lowest rates of immigration in the country.

是英国移民率最低的地区之一。

And so I was just a bit baffled,

所以我有点困惑，

because I couldn't really understand

因为我不能真正理解

where people were getting their information from.

人们从哪里得到了信息。

因为正是右翼小报

Because it was the right-wing tabloid newspapers

刊登了所有关于移民的报道。

which printed all these stories about immigration.

但这里一个非常左翼的工党大本营。

And this is a very much left-wing Labour stronghold.

But then after the article came out, this woman got in touch with me.

但文章发表后， 有个女人和我取得了联系。

And she was from Ebbw Vale,

她来自埃布谷，

and she told me about all this stuff that she'd seen on Facebook.

她把在Facebook上看到的东西 全部告诉了我。

I was like, "What stuff?"

我说，“什么东西?”

她说移民问题非常可怕，

And she said it was all this quite scary stuff about immigration,

尤其是土耳其。

and especially about Turkey.

So I tried to find it.

所以我试着找到她所说的消息。

But there was nothing there.

但是什么也没有。

Because there's no archive of ads that people had seen

因为没有相关的档案， 来保存人们看过的广告

or what had been pushed into their news feeds.

或新闻媒体流推送的内容 也没有被保存。

No trace of anything, gone completely dark.

没有任何痕迹，完全没有线索。

And this referendum that will have this profound effect forever on Britain --

这次公投将对英国产生深远的影响——

it's already had a profound effect:

它已经产生了深远的影响：

the Japanese car manufacturers that came to Wales and the north east

之前威尔士和东北部的 日本汽车制造商

to replace the mining jobs --

曾取代矿业工作——

they are already going because of Brexit.

现在他们已经因为英国脱欧而离开了。

And this entire referendum took place in darkness,

整个公投发生在黑暗中，

because it took place on Facebook.

因为它发生在Facebook上。

And what happens on Facebook stays on Facebook,

Facebook上发生的事情 只会留在Facebook圈子里，

because only you see your news feed, and then it vanishes,

因为只有你看到你的新闻推送， 然后它就消失了，

so it's impossible to research anything.

所以无法研究任何东西。

So we have no idea who saw what ads

所以我们不知道谁看到了什么广告，

or what impact they had,

这些广告又产生了什么影响，

or what data was used to target these people.

或者这些推送是基于哪些数据的。

Or even who placed the ads, or how much money was spent,

甚至是谁投放了广告，花了多少钱，

or even what nationality they were.

甚至这些人的国籍是什么。

But Facebook does.

但是Facebook知晓这些秘密。

Facebook has these answers,

Facebook有这些问题的答案，

and it's refused to give them to us.

但它拒绝告诉我们。

Our parliament has asked Mark Zuckerberg multiple times to come to Britain

我们的议会已经多次要求 马克·扎克伯格来英国

and to give us these answers.

给我们解释这些疑问。

And every single time, he's refused.

每一次，他都拒绝了。

And you have to wonder why.

你一定想知道他为什么不来。

Because what I and other journalists have uncovered

因为我和其他记者发现，

is that multiple crimes took place during the referendum.

公投期间发生了多起犯罪。

And they took place on Facebook.

而且这些犯罪 就发生在Facebook上。

It's because in Britain, we limit the amount of money

因为在英国，我们限制你

that you can spend in an election.

在选举中可以花的钱。

And it's because in the 19th century,

这是因为在19世纪，

people would walk around with literally wheelbarrows of cash

人们真的会带着一手推车的现金 四处走动，

and just buy voters.

然后收买选民。

So we passed these strict laws to stop that from happening.

所以我们通过了这些严格的法律 来阻止这种情况的发生。

But those laws don't work anymore.

但是那些法律现在已经不管用了。

This referendum took place almost entirely online.

这次公投几乎完全是在网上进行的。

And you can spend any amount of money on Facebook or on Google or on YouTube ads

你可以在Facebook、谷歌或 YouTube上花很多钱，

and nobody will know, because they're black boxes.

没人会知道，因为它们经过”黑盒操作“， 没人知道其内部运作。

And this is what happened.

事情就是这样。

We've actually got no idea of the full extent of it.

实际上，我们并不知道它的全部范围。

But we do know that in the last days before the Brexit vote,

但我们知道的是， 在英国脱欧公投前的最后几天，

the official "Vote Leave" campaign

官方的“脱欧公投”活动通过另一个

laundered nearly three quarters of a million pounds

竞选实体洗钱

through another campaign entity

近75万英镑，

that our electoral commission has ruled was illegal,

我们的选举委员会裁定 该实体是非法的，

and it's referred it to the police.

并将其提交给了警方。

And with this illegal cash,

用这些非法资金，

"Vote Leave" unleashed a fire hose of disinformation.

“脱欧公投”引发了一连串虚假信息。

Ads like this.

就像这样的广告。

[Turkey's 76m people joining the EU]

(土耳其7600万人加入欧盟)

This is a lie, it's a total lie.

这是个谎言，是个彻彻底底的谎言。

Turkey is not joining the European Union.

土耳其不会加入欧盟。

There's not even any discussions of it joining the European Union.

甚至没有任何关于它加入欧盟的讨论。

And most of us, we never saw these ads,

而我们大多数人， 我们从来没有见过这些广告，

because we were not the target of them.

因为我们不是他们的目标。

"Vote Leave" identified a tiny sliver of people

“脱欧公投”寻找了一小部分 被认为会动摇的人，

who it identified as persuadable, and they saw them.

他们看到了这些广告。

And the only reason we are seeing these now

我们现在看到这些的唯一原因

is because parliament forced Facebook to hand them over.

是因为议会强迫Facebook 交出了它们。

And maybe you think,

也许你会想，

"Well, it was just a bit of overspending.

“嗯，只是有点不太像话。

It's a few lies."

只是几个谎言而已。”

But this was the biggest electoral fraud in Britain for 100 years.

但这是英国100年来 最大的选举舞弊。

In a once-in-a-generation vote

这是一代人只可能参与一次，

that hinged upon just one percent of the electorate.

而只有1%的选民参与的投票。

And it was just one of the crimes that took place in the referendum.

这只是公投中发生的罪行之一。

There was another group,

还有另一个组织，

which was headed by this man, Nigel Farage,

由这个人领导，奈杰尔·法拉奇，

the one to the right of Trump.

特朗普右边的那个。

And his group, "Leave.EU" -- it also broke the law.

和他的团队，“离开欧盟” ——它也违反了法律。

It broke British electoral laws and British data laws,

它违反了英国选举法和数据法，

and it's also being referred to the police.

也被提交给了警方。

And this man, Arron Banks, he funded this campaign.

这个人，阿伦·班克斯， 资助了这次竞选。

And in a completely separate case,

在另一个不相关的案件中，

he's being referred to our National Crime Agency,

他被移交给我们的国家犯罪局，

our equivalent of the FBI,

相当于美国的联邦调查局，

because our electoral commission

因为我们的选举委员会得出结论，

has concluded they don't know where his money came from.

他们不知道他的钱从哪里来。

Or if it was even British.

究竟是不是来自英国的资金。

And I'm not even going to go into the lies that Arron Banks has told

我甚至不用去细说 阿伦·班克斯所说的

about his covert relationship with the Russian government.

关于他与俄罗斯政府秘密关系的谎言。

Or the weird timing of Nigel Farage's meetings with Julian Assange

或者是奈杰尔·法拉奇(脱欧党党魁) 与朱利安·阿桑奇(维基解密主角)

and with Trump's buddy, Roger Stone, now indicted,

以及特朗普的好友罗杰·斯通， 他如今正被起诉，会面的奇怪时间，

immediately before two massive WikiLeaks dumps,

就在维基解密公布两份大规模文件之前，

both of which happened to benefit Donald Trump.

这两份文件都恰好有利于 唐纳德·特朗普。

But I will tell you that Brexit and Trump were intimately entwined.

但我要告诉你的是， 英国脱欧和特朗普密不可分。

This man told me that Brexit was the petri dish for Trump.

这个人告诉我， 英国退欧是特朗普的培养皿。

And we know it's the same people, the same companies,

我们知道是同样的人，同样的公司，

the same data, the same techniques,

同样的数据，同样的技术，

the same use of hate and fear.

同样利用了仇恨和恐惧。

This is what they were posting on Facebook.

这是他们在Facebook上发布的。

And I don't even want to call this a lie,

我甚至不想称之为谎言，

[Immigration without assimilation equals invasion]

【没有经历同化的移民等于入侵】

because it feels more like a hate crime to me.

因为对我来说，这更像是一种仇恨犯罪。

I don't have to tell you

我不必告诉你，

that hate and fear are being sown online all across the world.

仇恨和恐惧 正在世界各地的网络上散播。

Not just in Britain and America, but in France and in Hungary

不仅在英国和美国， 而且在法国、匈牙利、

and Brazil and Myanmar and New Zealand.

巴西、缅甸和新西兰。

And we know there is this dark undertow which is connecting us all globally.

我们觉察到有一股黑色的暗流 将我们连接在一起。

And it is flowing via the technology platforms.

它通过技术平台流动。

But we only see a tiny amount of what's going on on the surface.

但我们只能看到表面上的一小部分。

And I only found out anything about this dark underbelly

我也只发现了 关于这个黑暗面的冰山一角，

because I started looking into Trump's relationship to Farage,

因为我开始调查 特朗普和法拉奇的关系，

into a company called Cambridge Analytica.

我发现了一家叫剑桥分析的公司。

And I spent months tracking down an ex-employee, Christopher Wiley.

我花了好几个月的时间 才找到前雇员克里斯托弗·威利。

And he told me how this company, that worked for both Trump and Brexit,

他向我解释， 这家为特朗普和英国脱欧运作的公司

had profiled people politically

是如何从政治上剖析人们的，

in order to understand their individual fears,

以便理解他们个人的恐惧，

to better target them with Facebook ads.

从而更好地用 Facebook广告瞄准他们。

And it did this by illicitly harvesting the profiles

它通过非法获取Facebook上

of 87 million people from Facebook.

8700万人的用户资料来做到这一点。

It took an entire year's work to get Christopher on the record.

我花了整整一年才把克里斯托弗 记录在案。

And I had to turn myself from a feature writer

我不得不把自己从特写作家

into an investigative reporter to do it.

变成调查记者。

And he was extraordinarily brave,

他非常勇敢，

because the company is owned by Robert Mercer,

因为这家公司的所有者 是为特朗普提供资金的

亿万富翁罗伯特·默瑟，

the billionaire who bankrolled Trump,

and he threatened to sue us multiple times,

他多次威胁要起诉我们，

to stop us from publishing.

阻止我们出版。

But we finally got there, and we were one day ahead of publication.

但我们最终还是做到了， 离出版还有一天。

We got another legal threat.

我们受到了另一个法律威胁。

Not from Cambridge Analytica this time,

这次不是来自剑桥分析公司，

but from Facebook.

而是来自Facebook。

It told us that if we publish, they would sue us.

它告诉我们，如果我们出版， 他们会起诉我们。

We did it anyway.

我们仍然出版了。

(Applause)

(掌声)

Facebook, you were on the wrong side of history in that.

Facebook， 你们选择站在历史错误的一边。

And you were on the wrong side of history in this --

你们站在历史错误的一边， 因为你们

in refusing to give us the answers that we need.

拒绝给出我们需要的真相。

And that is why I am here.

这就是我来这里的原因。

直接对你们说，硅谷的众神们。

To address you directly, the gods of Silicon Valley.

(Applause)

(掌声)

Mark Zuckerberg ...

马克·扎克伯格……

(Applause)

(掌声)

and Sheryl Sandberg and Larry Page and Sergey Brin and Jack Dorsey,

谢丽尔·桑德伯格（脸书CEO）、 拉里·佩奇（谷歌母公司CEO）、

谢尔盖·布林（谷歌联合创始人）、 杰克·多尔西（推特创始人CEO），

还有你们的员工和投资者。

and your employees and your investors, too.

Because 100 years ago,

因为100年前，

the biggest danger in the South Wales coal mines was gas.

南威尔士煤矿最大的危险是煤气。

Silent and deadly and invisible.

沉默，致命，隐形。

It's why they sent the canaries down first to check the air.

这就是为什么他们先派金丝雀 去检查空气。

And in this massive, global, online experiment that we are all living through,

在这个大规模的、全球性的、 在线的实验中，我们都置身其中，

we in Britain are the canary.

我们英国人就是金丝雀。

We are what happens to a western democracy

当一百年来的选举法被科技打乱时，

when a hundred years of electoral laws are disrupted by technology.

我们就是活生生的 所谓西方民主国家的下场。

我们的民主被破坏了， 我们的法律不再有效，

Our democracy is broken, our laws don't work anymore,

and it's not me saying this,

这不是我说的，

it's our parliament published a report saying this.

而是我们的议会发表了一份报告。

你们发明的这项技术太神奇了。

This technology that you have invented has been amazing.

But now, it's a crime scene.

但现在，这里是犯罪现场。

And you have the evidence.

你有证据。

And it is not enough to say that you will do better in the future.

但是你们仅仅说 将来会做得更好是不够的。

Because to have any hope of stopping this from happening again,

因为要想阻止这种事情再次发生，

we have to know the truth.

我们必须知道真相。

And maybe you think, "Well, it was just a few ads.

也许你会想， “没事儿，这只是几个广告而已。

And people are smarter than that, right?"

人们比这更聪明，不会中招对吧?”

To which I would say, "Good luck with that."

对此我要说：“祝你好运。”

因为脱欧公投表明，

Because what the Brexit vote demonstrates

is that liberal democracy is broken.

自由民主已经破碎。

And you broke it.

你们把它弄坏了。

这不是民主——

This is not democracy --

spreading lies in darkness, paid for with illegal cash,

在黑暗之中散布谎言， 用非法的现金支付，

from God knows where.

天知道这些现金从哪里来。

It's subversion,

这是对国家的 颠覆，

and you are accessories to it.

而你们都是它的陪葬品。

(掌声)

(Applause)

Our parliament has been the first in the world

我们的议会是世界上第一个

to try to hold you to account,

试图让你们承担责任的议会，

and it's failed.

但它失败了。

You are literally beyond the reach of British law -- not just British laws,

你们真的超出了英国法律的范围 ——不仅仅是英国法律，

this is nine parliaments, nine countries are represented here,

这是9个议会，9个国家的代表，

who Mark Zuckerberg refused to come and give evidence to.

马克·扎克伯格却拒绝来作证。

And what you don't seem to understand is that this is bigger than you.

你似乎不明白这种精准投放的广告 远远比你强大。

And it's bigger than any of us.

它比我们任何人都强大。

And it is not about left or right or "Leave" or "Remain" or Trump or not.

这与左派、右派、“脱欧”、 “留欧”、特朗普都无关。

这关系到是否有可能再次

It's about whether it's actually possible

举行一次自由公正的选举。

to have a free and fair election ever again.

Because as it stands, I don't think it is.

因为就目前来看，我不抱任何希望。

And so my question to you is, is this what you want?

所以我想问你们， 这就是你们想要的吗?

你希望历史就这样记住你吗：

Is this how you want history to remember you:

你是世界各地正在兴起的

as the handmaidens to authoritarianism

威权主义的奴仆?

that is on the rise all across the world?

Because you set out to connect people.

因为你的初衷是将人们联系起来。

And you are refusing to acknowledge

但如今你们拒绝承认

that the same technology is now driving us apart.

同样的技术正在把我们分开。

And my question to everybody else is,

我对其他人的问题是，

is this what we want:

这就是我们想要的吗：

to let them get away with it,

让他们逍遥法外，

and to sit back and play with our phones, as this darkness falls?

在黑暗降临的时候，坐下来玩手机?

The history of the South Wales Valleys is of a fight for rights.

南威尔士山谷的历史 是一场争取权利的斗争。

And this is not a drill -- it's a point of inflection.

这不是演习，这是一个转折点。

民主并非是应许的， 也不是必然的。

Democracy is not guaranteed, and it is not inevitable,

and we have to fight and we have to win

我们必须战斗，我们必须胜利，

and we cannot let these tech companies have this unchecked power.

我们不能让这些科技公司 拥有这种不受约束的权力。

It's up to us -- you, me and all of us.

这取决于我们—— 你，我和我们所有人。

We are the ones who have to take back control.

我们必须夺回控制权。

(Applause)

(掌声)

(欢呼)

(Cheers)

(掌声)

(Applause)