Facebook如何应对丑闻：时报调查6大关键看点

For more than a year, Facebook has endured cascading crises — over Russian misinformation, data privacy and abusive content — that transformed the Silicon Valley icon into an embattled giant accused of corporate overreach and negligence.

一年多来，Facebook在俄罗斯散布虚假信息、数据隐私和滥用等问题上经历了接连不断的危机，把这个硅谷的偶像变成了一个处境艰难的大公司，面临着人们对企业不自量力和疏忽的指控。

An investigation by The New York Times revealed how Facebook fought back against its critics: with delays, denials and a full-bore campaign in Washington. Here are six takeaways.

《纽约时报》的一项调查揭示了Facebook如何对其批评者进行回击，做法包括拖延、否认，以及在华盛顿展开全力以赴的活动。下面是调查的六个主要结果。

Facebook knew about Russian interference Facebook

早就知道俄罗斯的干涉

In fall 2016, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, was publicly declaring it a “crazy idea” that his company had played a role in deciding the election. But security experts at the company already knew otherwise.

2016年秋，Facebook首席执行官马克·扎克伯格(Mark Zuckerberg)曾公开宣称，认为他的公司对决定选举结果有作用是一个“愚蠢的想法”。但公司的安全专家那时就已经知道事实正相反。

They found signs as early as spring 2016 that Russian hackers were poking around the Facebook accounts of people linked to American presidential campaigns. Months later, they saw Russian-controlled accounts sharing information from hacked Democratic emails with reporters. Facebook accumulated evidence of Russian activity for over a year before executives opted to share what they knew with the public — and even their own board of directors.

他们早在2016年春天就发现有迹象表明，俄罗斯黑客正在搜查与美国总统竞选活动有关的Facebook帐户。几个月后，他们看到，俄罗斯人控制的账户把黑客攻击得到的民主党电子邮件发给记者们。在公司高管们选择把他们知道的东西告知公众——甚至告诉自己的董事会之前，Facebook已经积累了一年多的俄罗斯活动的证据。

The company feared Trump supporters

公司害怕特朗普的支持者

In 2015, when the presidential candidate Donald J. Trump called for a banof Muslim immigrants, Facebook employees and outside critics called on the company to punish Mr. Trump. Mr. Zuckerberg considered it — asking subordinates whether Mr. Trump had violated the company’s rules and whether his account should be suspended or the post removed.

2015年，当总统候选人唐纳德·J·特朗普呼吁禁止穆斯林移民时，Facebook员工和外界批评者曾呼吁公司惩罚特朗普。扎克伯格也考虑过这个问题，他向下属询问，特朗普是否违反了公司的规定，是不是应该暂停他的帐户，要不要删掉他的帖子。

But while Mr. Zuckerberg was personally offended, he deferred to subordinates who warned that penalizing Mr. Trump would set off a damaging backlash among Republicans.

但是，尽管扎克伯格本人对特朗普的做法愤愤不已，但他还是听从了下属的意见，他们警告说，惩罚特朗普将在共和党人中引发强烈反对，这会给公司带来很大的危害。

Mr. Trump’s post remained up.

特朗普的帖子至今仍在那里。

Facebook launched a multipronged attack and lobbying campaign Facebook

发动了多管齐下的反击和游说活动

As criticism grew over Facebook’s belated admissions of Russian influence, the company launched a lobbying campaign — overseen by Sheryl Sandberg, the company’s chief operating officer — to combat critics and shift anger toward rival tech firms.

随着Facebook对俄罗斯影响大选的迟来承认引发的批评之声日益增大，公司发动了一场与批评者较量、将人们的怒火转向竞争对手技术公司的游说活动，活动由公司的首席运营官谢丽尔·桑德伯格(Sheryl Sandberg)主管。

Facebook hired Senator Mark Warner’s former chief of staff to lobby him; Ms. Sandberg personally called Senator Amy Klobuchar to complain about her criticism. The company also deployed a public relations firm to push negative stories about its political critics and cast blame on companies like Google.

Facebook聘用了参议员马克·华纳(Mark Warner)的前办公室主任来游说这位参议员;桑德伯格亲自给参议员艾米·克洛布彻(Amy Klobuchar)打电话，对克洛布彻的批评表示不满。公司还安排一家公关公司，推出了关于Facebook政治批评者的负面报道，还把问题归咎于谷歌那样的公司。

Those efforts included depicting the billionaire liberal donor George Soros as the force behind a broad anti-Facebook movement, and publishing stories praising Facebook and criticizing Google and Apple on a conservative news site.

这些努力包括，把自由派捐款人、亿万富翁乔治·索罗斯(George Soros)描绘为一个涉及广泛的反Facebook运动的背后推手，发表赞扬Facebook的故事，以及在保守派新闻网站上散布批评谷歌和苹果公司的消息。

Cambridge Analytica raised the stakes 剑桥分析(Cambridge Analytica)使事态扩大

Facebook faced worldwide outrage in March after The Times, The Observer of London and The Guardian published a joint investigation into how user data had been appropriated by Cambridge Analytica to profile American voters. But inside Facebook, executives thought they could contain the damage. The company installed a new chief of American lobbying to help quell the bipartisan anger in Congress, and it quietly shelved an internal communications campaign, called “We Get It,” meant to assure employees that the company was committed to getting back on track in 2018.

今年3月，时报、《伦敦观察》(The Observer of London)和《卫报》(The Guardian)发表了一篇联合调查，对剑桥分析公司如何利用用户数据获取美国选民个人信息的事情进行了报道之后，Facebook面临着全世界的公愤。但在Facebook内部，高管们认为他们可以控制事态。公司任命了一位负责美国游说的新主管，来帮助平息国会里来自两党的愤怒，并悄悄搁置了一个旨在向员工保证公司将尽心尽力在2018年恢复正常的、名为“我们明白了”(We Get It)的内部宣传活动。

Some criticisms hurt more than others

有些批评比其他批评更伤人

Sensing Facebook’s vulnerability, some rival tech firms in Silicon Valley sought to use the outcry to promote their own brands. After Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, quipped in an interview that his company did not traffic in personal data, Mr. Zuckerberg ordered his management team to use only Android phones. After all, he reasoned, the operating system had far more users than Apple’s.

硅谷的一些竞争对手技术公司意识到Facebook的弱点后，试图利用人们的不满来推销自己的品牌。苹果公司首席执行官蒂姆·库克(Tim Cook)在一次采访中挖苦，自己的公司不用个人数据做买卖，之后，扎克伯格下令他的管理团队只用Android手机。他给出的理由是，毕竟，Android手机操作系统的用户数远远超过苹果的。

Facebook still has friends Facebook

仍然有朋友

Washington’s senior Democrat, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, raised more money from Facebook employees than any other member of Congress during the 2016 election cycle — and he was there when the company needed him.

2016年大选期间，华盛顿的资深民主党人、纽约州参议员查克·舒默(Chuck Schumer)从Facebook员工那里筹集到的资金数额超过任何其他国会议员，当公司需要他时，他没有推辞。

This past summer, as Facebook’s troubles mounted, Mr. Schumer confronted Mr. Warner, who by then had emerged as Facebook’s most insistent inquisitor in Congress. Back off, Mr. Schumer told Mr. Warner, and look for ways to work with Facebook, not vilify it. Lobbyists for Facebook — which also employs Mr. Schumer’s daughter — were kept abreast of Mr. Schumer’s efforts.

今年夏天，随着Facebook困境的加剧，舒默与华纳发生了冲突，华纳这时已成为国会里最坚持不懈地调查Facebook的人。舒默对华纳说，放弃吧，应该去寻找与Facebook合作的方式，而不是去诋毁它。舒默的女儿也是Facebook的雇员，为Facebook游说的人对舒默的努力有随时的了解。