外刊精读：看英国政府如何应对网络谣言

Government cracks down on spread of false coronavirus information online

政府严厉打击冠状病毒网络谣言的传播

crack down：动词短语，严厉打击；镇压。

例句：The government has cracked down hard on those campaigning for greater democracy. 

政府严厉镇压了那些发起运动争取更广泛民主的人士。

Specialist units are operating to combat misinformation about coronavirus and five to ten incidents are being identified and tackled each day.

专家单位正在努力大家关于冠状病毒的谣言，每天发现并处理5-10起事件。

combat misinformation:打击谣言                                  

combat：vt. 打击，combat crime: 打击犯罪

misinformation: 假消息，和前面的false information进行了同义替换

identify: identify是很好用的小词，意思比较多。

①认出；识别；分辨出 -  If you can identify someone or something, you are able to recognize them or distinguish them from others.

There are a number of distinguishing characteristics by which you can identify a Hollywood epic.

好莱坞的史诗大片有着一些与众不同的特点。

②确认；指认；验明 -  If you identify someone or something, you name them or say who or what they are.

Police have already identified around 10 murder suspects.

警方已经确认了约10名谋杀案疑凶。

③发现；察觉 - If you identify something, you discover or notice its existence.

Scientists claim to have identified natural substances with cancer-combating properties. 科学家们声称已经发现自然界的某些物质具有抗癌特性。

④是…的标志;显示出 - If a particular thing identifies someone or something, it makes them easy to recognize, by making them different in some way. 

His boots and purple beret identify him as commanding the Scottish Paratroops.

他的长靴和紫色贝雷帽表明他统领着苏格兰伞兵部队。

⑤认同;理解;体会 - If you identify with someone or something, you feel that you understand them or their feelings and ideas. 

She would only play a role if she could identify with the character.

她只愿扮演她能认同的角色。

⑥把…(与…密)切联系;认为…(与…)有关联 If you identify one person or thing with another, you think that they are closely associated or involved in some way. 

She hates playing the sweet, passive women that audiences identify her with.

她讨厌扮演那些漂亮可爱、消极被动的女人，观众们已把她定型为这类角色。

Specialist units across government are working at pace to combat false and misleading narratives about coronavirus, ensuring the public has the right information to protect themselves and save lives.

政府各部门的专家正在努力制止与冠状病毒有关的虚假和误导性叙述，以确保公众拥有正确的信息来保护自己和挽救生命。

The Rapid Response Unit, operating from within the Cabinet Office and No.10, is tackling a range of harmful narratives online - from purported ‘experts’ issuing dangerous misinformation to criminal fraudsters running phishing scams.

由内阁办公室和第10号内阁组成的快速反应小组正在网上处理一系列有害的言论，从所谓的“专家”发出危险的错误信息到犯有网络钓鱼骗局的欺诈者。

Purport: 声称；标榜。Purported是形容词形式，意思是谣传的。

Phishing：网络钓鱼（用仿冒银行电子邮件等骗取个人信息以盗取金钱或用于犯罪等）。

Scam: （通常以诈财或逃税为目的的）诡计、阴谋。

Up to 70 incidents a week, often false narratives containing multiple misleading claims, are being identified and resolved. The successful ‘Don’t Feed the Beast’ public information campaign will also relaunch next week, to empower people to question what they read online.

每周多达70多起事件被发现并解决，这些错误的陈述往往包含多个误导性主张。成功的“‘Don’t Feed the Beast”公共信息活动也将在下周启动，能够让 人们质疑他们在网上读到的信息。

Empower：给予…力量；使有能力(实现…) 。

例句：What I'm trying to do is to empower people, to give them ways to help them get well.我现在努力做的就是帮助人们，引他们过上好日子。

Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said:

We need people to follow expert medical advice and stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives. It is vital that this message hits home and that misinformation and disinformation which undermines it is knocked down quickly. We’re working with social media companies, and I’ll be pressing them this week for further action to stem the spread of falsehoods and rumours which could cost lives.

文化部长奥利弗·道登（Oliver Dowden）说：

我们需要人们遵循专家的医疗建议并留在家里，保护NHS并挽救生命。重要的是这个消息切中要害，破坏它的错误信息和虚假信息必须迅速被消除。我们正在与社交媒体公司合作，我将在本周向他们施加压力，要求他们采取进一步行动，以阻止可能造成生命损失的虚假信息和谣言的传播。

Follow advice: 遵循建议。

Hit home: 切中要害；使人接受（或认清事实）。

Knock down：推倒。

Press: 催促；敦促；竭力劝说。

例句：Mr King seems certain to be pressed for further details.

看来人们一定会竭力要求金先生提供进一步的细节。

Stem: 阻止、遏制、制止。

例句：The authorities seem powerless to stem the rising tide of violence.

当局似乎无力阻止愈演愈烈的暴力活动。

Falsehood：做可数名词时意思是谎言，不可数名词时意思是虚伪性、虚假性。

Rumour：谣言、留言。

Rumour, falsehood, false information, misinformation, disinformation

都可以做近义词进行替换。

When false narratives are identified, the government’s Rapid Response Unit coordinates with departments across Whitehall to deploy the appropriate response. This can include a direct rebuttal on social media, working with platforms to remove harmful content and ensuring public health campaigns are promoted through reliable sources.

如果发现虚假陈述，政府的快速反应小组会与白厅各部门进行协调，以部署适当的反应。这可以包括在社交媒体上直接进行反驳，与平台合作删除有害内容并确保通过可靠的来源促进公共卫生运动。

Deploy：部署。

例句：The company is reconsidering the way in which it deploys its resources/staff. 该公司在重新考虑其资源／员工的使用之道。

Rebuttal：反驳；回击。

例句：She issued a point-by-point rebuttal of the company's accusations.

她就公司的指控进行了针锋相对的驳斥。

The unit is one of the teams feeding into the wider Counter Disinformation Cell led by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, made up of experts from across government and in the tech sector.

该部门是由数字，文化，媒体和体育部领导的更广泛的反虚假信息小组的团队之一，该部门由来自政府和技术领域的专家组成。

The Cell is engaging with social media platforms and with disinformation specialists from civil society and academia, to establish a comprehensive overview of the extent, scope and impact of disinformation related to coronavirus.

该小组正在与社交媒体平台以及民间社会和学术界的虚假信息专家合作，以全面概述与冠状病毒有关的虚假信息的程度、范围和影响。

Engage with: （与…）建立密切关系 。

例句：She found it hard to engage with office life. 她发现很难适应办公室生活。

The Culture Secretary will be contacting social media companies this week to thank them for their good efforts to date, assess the progress made and discuss what other potential measures can be put in place to ensure accurate, honest information consistently reaches users of their platforms.

文化部长将在本周联系社交媒体企业，感谢他们迄今为止所做出的不懈努力，评估取得的进展，并讨论可以采取哪些其他预计措施保证到达其平台用户的始终都是准确、真实的信息。

to date：至今，迄今为止。

例句：To date, all patients under investigation have received treatment with this drug.

put in place:到位，落实，正在实施。

例句：These inequities in health arise because of the circumstances in which people grow, live, work, and age, and the systems put in place to deal with illness.

Penny Mordaunt, Paymaster General said:

Holding your breath for ten seconds is not a test for coronavirus and gargling water for 15 seconds is not a cure - this is the kind of false advice we have seen coming from sources claiming to be medical experts.

英国执行部长Penny Mordaunt说：

屏住呼吸十秒钟并不能检测冠状病毒，而口含漱口水十五秒钟也不能治愈冠状病毒——这些是我们从声称是来源于医学专家的信息中看到的错误建议。

Gargle：

①漱；漱口；（漱口时从喉底）发出（咕噜声）；漱喉；用漱口液v.

例句：You should gargle the throat regularly.

②漱口；含漱剂，漱口剂；咕噜声；含酒精的饮料n..

例句：I think this gargle will relieve your sore throat only.

That is why government communicators are working in tandem with health bodies to promote official medical advice, rebut false narratives and clamp down on criminals seeking to exploit public concern during this pandemic.

这就是为什么政府宣传人员与卫生机构合作提倡官方医疗建议，揭露谣言，并打击在疫情期间利用公众关注的不法分子。

in tandem with：同……合作。

例句：Even professionals have to work in tandem with another simultaneous interpreter.

rebut:反驳，揭露Vt .& n.

rebut a claim 驳回诉讼请求。

narrative:叙述；故事；讲述n .&adj.，此处引申译为“谣言”。

clamp down on:对……进行压制，取缔。

例句：provincial governments should make every effort to clamp down on groups making huge profits from illegally charging highway fees.

pandemic:流行病；瘟疫；在全国（球）范围流行的n .&adj.

But the public can also help with this effort, so today we implore them to take some simple steps before sharing information online, such as always reading beyond the headline and scrutinising the source.

但是公众也可以通过努力来提供帮助，因此，现在我们恳请他们在线共享信息前采取一些简单的步骤，例如始终阅读标题以外的内容并仔细检查信息来源。

Scrutinize:做仔细检查V. & n.同义词：scan。

例句：We must scrutinize and evaluate.

The public can help stop the spread of potentially dangerous or false stories circulating online by following official government guidance - the ‘SHARE’ checklist (see further information). This includes basic but essential advice such as checking the source of a story and analysing the facts before sharing.

公众可以通过按照政府的官方指导-“共享”清单去做，从而阻止网上传播的潜在危险或虚假信息（请参阅更多信息）。清单中包括基本但必不可少的建议，例如明确故事的来源，并在共享之前分析事实。

Certain states routinely use disinformation as a policy tool, so the government is also stepping up its efforts to share its assessments on coronavirus disinformation with international partners. Working collaboratively has already helped make the UK safer, providing ourselves and our allies with a better understanding of how different techniques are used as part of malicious information operations - and how to protect against those techniques more effectively.

一些州习惯性使用虚假信息作为政策工具。因此，政府也正在加大努力与国际伙伴共享对冠状病毒虚假信息的评估。协同合作已经帮助英国提高了安全性，使我们自己和我们的盟友更好地了解了如何将不同的技术手段用作恶意信息操作的一部分，并如何更有效地防范这些技术手段。

Routinely:例行公事地，来一套地;习惯性地 adv.

例句：Some companies routinely ask "How did you hear about us?" of every new customer who phones or visits.

Disinformation:虚假信息，故意的假情报。

例句：Media disinformation has become institutionalized.

step up:提高，增加。

例句：we must also step up efforts to increase agricultural productivity.

collaboratively:合作地，协作地 adv collaboration:合作n.

malicious: 恶意的；恶毒的；蓄意的；怀恨的 adj.

例句：You ought to kick back at such malicious slander.

These measures follow recent advice from the National Cyber Security Centre, which revealed a range of attacks being perpetrated online by cyber criminals seeking to exploit coronavirus earlier this month.

这些措施是采纳了国家网络安全中心的最新建议，该中心透露了本月初试图利用冠状病毒的不法分子在网上进行的一系列不法行径。

National Cyber Security Centre:国家网络安全中心，成立于2017年，旨在研究网络安全威胁和漏洞，并对如何应对网络攻击提出建议。

Cyber:与计算机或网络有关的 adj.

Perpetrate:犯罪；作恶 vt.

例句：People who perpetrate, condone（宽恕）or facilitate（协助）it must be brought to justice.

This included guidance on how to spot and deal with suspicious emails related to coronavirus, as well as mitigate and defend against malware and ransomware.

其中包括有关“如何发现和处理与冠状病毒的可疑电子邮件”和“减少和防御恶意软件和勒索软件”的指南。

Mitigate: 减轻，缓和 n.

例句：The judge said that nothing could mitigate the cruelty with which the mother had treated her child.

Malware：恶意软件 n.

Ransomware：勒索软件 n.

Ransom:

①赎金；赎回，释放n.

例句：Should I ransom my freedom?

②为……交付赎金；赎回；勒索赎金；释放v.

例句：The ransom must proportion the losses we have borne.

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