起底外网机器人水军制造中国新冠病毒阴谋论

CGTN欧洲区制中心采访报告联合作者Timothy Graham

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近日，澳大利亚一家研究机构发布了一份名为《如同病毒：新冠病毒错误信息的有组织散播》的调查报告。作者对CGTN表示，一批有组织的网络机器人水军在社交媒体上散布“新冠病毒是武汉病毒研究所人为制造的生化武器”等阴谋论，这些账号多数为支持特朗普的极右翼团体所操纵。

There is a close connection between the disinformation campaigns initiated on Twitter during the coronavirus pandemic and pro-Trump and QAnon affiliations, according to a study conducted by the Australia Institute, an independent public policy think tank based in Canberra.

The report, "Like a virus: The coordinated spread of coronavirus disinformation," found that about 30 clusters of Twitter accounts, which are affiliated with supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump, the Republican Party or the conspiracy theory QAnon, spread rumors that the coronavirus was a bioweapon created in China.

QAnon is a far-right conspiracy theory detailing an alleged plot by the "deep state" against Trump and his supporters.

'QAnon' is a far-right conspiracy theory forged on the internet. /AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File

报道称，自二月初以来，社交媒体上就有传言称，某些国家制造了新冠病毒。但该传言已被世界卫生组织和多个事实核查组织证实是错误的。美国情报和卫生官员也同样否认了新冠病毒是人造的说法。

然而，特朗普和蓬佩奥在没有提供任何证据的情况下，仍然多次声称新冠病毒可能来自中国武汉的一个研究实验室。

Rumors about various governments created the coronavirus as part of military experiments first started on social media in early February, which has been debunked by the World Health Organization and multiple fact-checking groups. The U.S. intelligence and health officials have likewise rejected the idea that the pathogen was man-made or genetically modified.

These allegations later entered the rhetoric of the White House. Both President Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo repeatedly claimed in public that COVID-19 may have come from a research lab in Wuhan, China. But neither of them provided any evidence to support the allegation.

澳大利亚研究院委托昆士兰科技大学专家，针对3月下旬推特上260万条与新冠病毒有关的推文以及在10天时间内对这些推文的2550万次转发作了分析，发现有5752个推特账户以一致的方式对新冠病毒相关信息转发了6559次，并且协调一致地散播有关“新冠病毒是中国制造的生化武器”阴谋论。

Researchers from the Queensland University of Technology, commissioned by the Australia Institute's Centre for Responsible Technology, over a ten day period in late March examined 2.6 million tweets and 25.5 million retweets related to COVID-19. 

To distinguish authentic Twitter users from bot-like accounts the team used a combination of reading by humans with a model that accounted for around 1,000 variables.

"If you've got two accounts who are constantly retweeting the same content, exactly the same tweet over and over and over again within one second of each other, so either exactly at the same time or within a second, then there's a very, very low probability that this has happened by chance for two organic individuals," explained Timothy Graham, who along with Alex Burns carried out the study. 

Using this methodology the team uncovered a network of 5,752 accounts that, in a coordinated fashion, retweeted COVID-related content 6,559 times.  

研究人员通过深度调查发现，在涉及“新冠病毒为来自中国的生化武器”议题中，共有2903个推特账户以及4125个网站链接组成了一个转发推送的团体。其中大部分账户表现为特朗普、“匿名者Q”、美国共和党以及右翼势力的支持者。

报告称，在10天时间里，社交媒体推特上共有882条原始推文与生化武器阴谋论有关，随后被迅速转发了18498次，并获得了31783次点赞，总共获得了500万次的阅读量。

The analysis further identified a network of 2,903 accounts and 4,125 links or co-retweets between them, which promoted the conspiracy theory that COVID-19 is a bioweapon developed by China. The majority of the clusters within this network identify as Pro-Trump, QAnon, and/or Republican partisan.

The study focused on 882 original tweets that focused on the bio-weapon conspiracy theory, which were retweeted 18,498 times and liked 31,783 times, generating an estimated five million impressions on the platform.

Donald Trump supporters are preparing for a bitter battle in September's presidential election. /Nicholas Kamm/AFP

Graham表示：“最重要的问题是，散布这些谣言将产生何种影响。这些谣言有可能被主流媒体和名人转发后放大。” 澳大利亚问题研究所主任罗德·坎贝尔（Rod Campbell）说：“这揭示了阴谋论是如何迅速从默默无闻到在白宫广泛传播。”

This shows the routes of how "the problematic content sets a foundation" and then takes off by being "amplified by the mainstream media and celebrities," said Timothy Graham, co-author of the report who is a senior lecturer at Queensland University of Technology, in an interview.

Rod Campbell, research director of the Australia Institute and another co-author of the research added that the finding "shows how a conspiracy theory can quickly go from obscurity to the Rose Garden."

"The million dollar question is what impact will this activity have," said Graham.

报告说，“无论网络水军参与者精心谋划和推广这些关于生物武器阴谋论，还是由外部人员对此加以利用，所要达到的舆论效果是一致的，就是让谣言所推动的主题或话题被更广泛的边缘群体所接受，从而放大谣言，使其显得可信”。

"Whether the coordinated inauthentic behaviors we have observed for the bioweapon conspiracy are orchestrated by the hard core of participants in these groups themselves, or are designed by external operators to target and exploit the worldviews of such groups, the net effect is often the same: the themes and topics promoted by coordinated inauthentic activity are taken up by the wider fringe community, and thereby gain amplification and authenticity," the researchers said in the report.

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