每日英語跟讀 Ep.K253: Face It, Facebook Won’t Change Unless Advertisers Demand It

Facebook has endured one of the most punishing stretches of corporate coverage in recent memory, exposing its immense power and blithe disregard for its deleterious impacts.

臉書遭受近期對企業最嚴酷的連篇累牘報導，暴露出臉書手握大權且毫不在乎自己對人們的危害。

But none of it really matters.

但這些統統無關緊要。

One overarching theme of the coverage, prompted by the meting out of tens of thousands of pages of internal documents by the whistleblower and former employee Frances Haugen, is that Facebook’s business priorities trump user privacy and safety. Facebook, Haugen told the Senate last month, knows how to remedy many of its problems “but won’t make the necessary changes because they have put their astronomical profits before people.”

這些報導依據吹哨人、臉書前員工郝根洩露的數萬頁內部文件而發，最重要主題是臉書讓商業利益凌駕用戶隱私與安全。郝根上月告訴美國聯邦參議院，臉書知道如何修補許多問題，「卻不肯做出必要改變，因為他們把天文數字的利潤看得比民眾重要」。

The Washington Post last week detailed how Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, often overruled researchers’ concerns and suggestions in pursuit of growth. And The Wall Street Journal, which first reported on Haugen’s trove, demonstrated how Facebook continued to pursue younger users despite evidence that Instagram negatively affected the mental health of teenagers and worsened some teen girls’ body image issues.

華盛頓郵報上個月詳細報導，臉書執行長祖克柏經常為了追求公司成長，不顧研究人員的憂慮和建言。率先披露郝根文件的華爾街日報則展示，儘管證據顯示臉書旗下社群軟體Instagram有損青少年心理健康，並使一些青少女對自己體態評價較低的問題惡化，臉書仍持續追求年輕用戶。

The coverage — including documentation that Facebook largely neglected regions outside the United States that are more susceptible to real-world harm from social media posts, among other ills — presents a chilling portrait of a company willing to let its website be overrun by hateful rhetoric, dangerous misinformation and propaganda in pursuit of the almighty buck.

文件還顯示，臉書在很大程度上未能監管美國以外地區，這些地區用戶比美國用戶更容易因為社群媒體貼文，而面臨在真實世界受害等問題。這些報導刻劃出臉書令人心寒的形象，就是為了追求萬能的金錢，寧可讓自家網站充斥仇恨言論、危險的錯誤資訊和宣傳內容。

Facebook, of course, denies this, noting an investment of $13 billion and 40,000 employees “to do one job: keep people safe on Facebook.”

臉書當然否認，說已投入130億美元和4萬名員工「就做一件事：讓人們安全上臉書」。

Why doesn’t this spiraling public relations crisis matter? Facebook simply hasn’t been compelled to change its behavior. If pure profit, rather than safety or the dissemination of correct information, is the company’s goal, it is a roaring success.

這個急遽惡化的公關危機怎會不重要？臉書只是還沒被逼著改變。如果臉書的目標只是獲利，而不是用戶安全或讓正確資訊傳播，那麼臉書已取得巨大成功。

Advertisers are sticking by Zuckerberg. In Facebook’s third quarter, ad sales jumped 33% from the same period the year before, to $28.3 billion, helping push profits up 17% to $9.2 billion.

廣告主一直支持祖克柏。臉書今年第三季廣告營收比去年同期激增33%，達283億美元，使淨利年增17%達92億美元。

Until advertisers start paring back their spending on Facebook, Congress, Haugen and the press are but bumps in the road. Why would Pfizer or Nike walk away? Facebook is where their buyers are, and it’s where Pfizer can ensure that drug marketing will be seen by 40-something rheumatoid arthritis sufferers.

除非廣告主開始大砍臉書廣告費，否則國會、郝根和媒體都只是路上的小顛簸。憑什麼輝瑞和耐吉要離開臉書？臉書是客戶所在地，而且輝瑞可以確定藥品廣告能精準投放給40多歲類風濕性關節炎患者看到。

Facebook has demonstrated it won’t address its systemic problems until forced to do so. Now, it appears, only advertisers can make the status quo unprofitable and unsustainable.

臉書已顯示，除非被逼，否則不會主動解決系統性問題。現在看來，唯有廣告主能使現狀無利可圖且無以為繼。Source article: https://udn.com/news/story/6904/5870564