点到为止 | 特朗普与TikTok的恩怨
US President Donald Trump’s threat to ban TikTok proves at least two things. It shows how America has turned its back on the values that have made it great. It also shows to the world that it doesn’t have a monopoly on innovation.
美国总统唐纳德•特朗普威胁禁用TikTok至少证明了两件事。一是美国背离了使其曾经伟大的价值观；二是告诉世界创新精神并非美国独有。
Now, it’s just an app! Many of the videos are actually quite silly. But watching them makes me laugh and forget about the heaviness of our daily lives. For Americans, I guess it gives them a nice break as well, when hundreds of their compatriots are dying of a virus and people bickering over a piece of cloth on their face!
TikTok只不过是个应用软件而已，上面的许多视频挺滑稽，但看了会让我发笑，让我忘却日常生活的压抑。对于美国人来说，这个应用可能给他们带去了片刻的轻松，尤其是当他们的数以百计的同胞正被一个病毒夺去生命，当有些人在为口罩争论不休时。
I’ve heard creators are making their livelihood on TikTok as well, and a special fund is expected to support them further. This is a good thing with such staggering unemployment numbers in the US.
我听说，不少创作者以TikTok为谋生平台，平台的一份特殊奖金就能改善他们的生活。这是好事，因为美国目前的就业形势极为严峻。
This is especially true for some talented Americans who have attracted a large audience within a short period of time, who haven’t had this kind of opportunity if they followed the traditional agent model. With this app, they found a brand new platform of expression and creativity, something no other American app has been able to do. And now President Trump wants to take that opportunity away?
这尤其帮助了一些才华横溢的美国人。在TikTok上，他们能在短时间内吸引大量观众，传统的经纪人模式无法提供这种机会。TikTok成为一个全新的表达和创意平台，还没有哪个美国应用能够做到这一点。现在，特朗普总统想夺走这样的机会?
TikTok’s users might have staged the emptier stadium in Tulsa, which annoyed President Trump. But that might have spared a few dozen Covid-19 deaths in Oklahoma. President Trum might not have liked how the BlackLivesMatter hashtag went viral on TikTok, but that’s against the enshrined First Amendment in the constitution of the good old U.S. of A. Remember they always accuse others of suppressing freedom of expression, right?
TikTok用户可能制造了“塔尔萨集会”事件，这惹恼了特朗普，但这可能也避免了新冠肺炎在俄克拉荷马州造成更多的死亡。特朗普可能不喜欢“黑人的命也是命”标签话题在TikTok上走红，但这是违背美利坚宪法第一修正案的。别忘了，他们可是一直在谴责别人压制言论自由。
President Trump says the case against TikTok is based on its connection to China.
特朗普总统说，封禁TikTok是因为它和中国的联系。
His trade advisor has openly accused TikTok of stealing personal data and sharing them with the Chinese government. But none of these accusations can be backed up. It’s the same person who said China “spawned” the coronavirus. And President Trump and his Secretary of State Pompeo said they saw evidence the virus came from a lab in Wuhan. They said Huawei could pose security risks… They said this and that, just short of showing evidence. So, guilty until proven innocent? I thought it’s innocent until proven guilty.
他的贸易顾问公开指责TikTok窃取个人信息，并与中国政府共享数据，但这些指控都没有任何证据。这位贸易顾问之前还说过中国“制造”了新冠病毒。特朗普和蓬佩奥曾说看到了新冠病毒从武汉一家实验室泄漏的证据，说华为会构成安全威胁，他们的指控张口就来，但就是拿不出证据。“疑罪从有”？难道不是“疑罪从无”吗？
Never mind, what are tech experts saying?
无所谓了，技术专家是怎么说的？
A Washington Post piece examined this very question. Among other things they found, TikTok doesn’t take any more of a user’s data than Facebook. TikTok’s app doesn’t do any of these shady things to a user’s phone more than routine tasks as other similar applications would do. And that “there’s scant evidence that TikTok is sharing our data with China.”
《华盛顿邮报》的一篇文章探讨了这个问题，他们的结论之一是，TikTok所获取的用户数据并不比脸书多。TikTok没做任何见不得人的事，相反，跟其他应用程序一样只是做一些常规操作。这篇文章写道，“没有足够的证据表明TikTok把我们的数据分享给了中国政府”。
A story on the tech magazine Wired asked the same questions. And experts have found TikTok appears to be “in the same league” as other social media applications in data collection, even, pretty tame compared to other apps. And that people are only guessing what the Chinese government can do if they ever get a hold of private data of Americans.
科技杂志《连线》的一篇报道探讨了同样的问题。专家们发现，就数据收集而言，TikTok似乎与其他社交媒体应用“处于同一阵营”，甚至比某些应用更为收敛。关于中国政府能用美国人的个人数据做什么，那只是人们的猜测而已。
Now don’t judge a person by the color of his or her skin, but the content of his or her character. Now judge a company not of what it does but where it comes from? Sounds like an original sin that can’t be erased. TikTok has done almost everything possible to become “of Americans”, “by Americans” and “for Americans”: its servers in America (and Singapore), hiring an American CEO, creating American jobs, paying American taxes and servicing American consumers. And yet, it seems just not enough.
（马德•路德•金说过）评判一个人的好坏，应该根据他的品行优劣，而不是种族肤色。那么，为何评判一个公司的标准不是它做了什么而是它来自哪里？好像出身是无法洗脱的原罪。TikTok竭尽所能去变得“美国有” “美国治” “美国享”，它的服务器在美国和新加坡，由美国CEO管理，为美国创造就业，向美国政府纳税，为美国消费者服务，但这些似乎还是不够。
It’s now asked to be completely severed from its China origin. The move is like forcing someone to disown his or her parents, change all the blood and sell oneself to a new family, while taking a cut from the proceeds.
现在，它被要求与其中国背景彻底划清界限。这就好比逼着一个人不认双亲，改头换面，卖身到新家庭，还要从中收一笔介绍费。
Whatever happens, it was a Chinese idea. Some American politicians have been jousting China for stealing American IP. Now by arm-twisting TikTok, they have actually acknowledged America doesn’t have a monopoly on innovation. China can come up with good ideas too.
但无论如何 TikTok是中国人的创意。有些美国政客一直说中国剽窃美国知识产权，而现在，他们对TikTok的打压就是在承认，创新并不是美国独有，中国人也能想出好点子。
When one can’t compete, one takes?
竞争不过，就明抢吗？
With TikTok having been widely used already, that tyranny, and the tyranny over people’s laughter and happiness as well, could be reciprocated on ballots on November 3.
TikTok用户众多，而这种暴政，剥夺人们欢笑和幸福权利的暴政，会在11月3日的投票中得到报应。
Someone said by threatening to ban TikTok, Trump has just solved the age-old problem of how to motivate young people to come out and vote.
有人说，特朗普威胁封杀TikTok解决了一个多年来的难题，那就是如何鼓励年轻人走出家门去投票。
I can almost hear these people scream at the top of their lungs:
我几乎听得见这些人声嘶力竭的怒吼。
Give me TikTok or give me death!
无TikTok 毋宁死！