为了保住推特“蓝V”认证，要付费了？

为了防止机器人伪装和有争议组织滥用认证的权威性，马斯克近日准备为自己提出的免费“蓝V”认证收费，一些机构和个人表示了反对。甚至该问题不但没有解决，还带来了新的危机。

全文1996字，阅读约需7分钟

推特老板马斯克宣布对其“蓝V功能”进行调整。2023年3月倒数第二周，推特表示将从4月1日开始删除一些 "遗留认证徽章"，用户需要付费才能 "保持在推特上的’蓝V‘认证"。希望得到验证的机构必须每月支付1000美元（6870.3元人民币）的费用，以获得金色认证徽章，而个人账户必须每月支付8美元（55元人民币）的蓝色认证徽章，这两个徽章统称为“蓝V”认证。

译注：自2022年12月以来，推特推出了三种不同颜色的认证徽章：金色用于商业机构，灰色用于政府账户，蓝色用于个人账户。

Twitter boss Elon Musk has announced a shake-up of the social media platform's paid Twitter Blue feature.Last week, the firm said it would remove the verified status of some "legacy" accounts, which date from before Mr Musk bought the firm.Last week, Twitter said it would remove some "legacy verified checkmarks" from 1 April.The firm added that users needed to pay to "keep your blue checkmark on Twitter".

以《纽约时报》为首，包括CNN、《洛杉矶时报》和《华盛顿邮报》在内的一些机构，和美国篮球名将勒布朗·詹姆斯、美国说唱歌手Ice·T等名人都表示，他们不会为这个认证付费。为此，马斯克辱骂道："《纽约时报》的真正悲剧在于，他们报道的内容极其无聊"。而在宣布从4月1日开始付费订阅后，推特已经开始从有认证徽章的账户中移除认证徽章。不过截至4月2日，推特似乎一共只删除了一个徽章：《纽约时报》的认证徽章。

The New York Times, along with several other organisations and celebrities, said they would not pay for the tick.It prompted Elon Musk to launch a volley of insults at the newspaper."The real tragedy of NYTimes is that their propaganda isn't even interesting", Mr Musk wrote on the platform.Twitter has started removing verification badges from accounts which already had a blue tick, after announcing they would be part of a paid subscription from 1 April.

埃隆马斯克抨击纽约时报的推文

不过，是否所有机构都需要为了认证而付费尚不明确。《纽约时报》援引推特的一份内部文件说，关注度前一万的机构可以保留认证徽章。

But it is unclear whether all organisations must sign up to the subscription service in order to remain verified. Ten thousand of the most-followed organisations on Twitter will be exempt from the rules, the New York Times reports, citing an internal Twitter document.

当埃隆·马斯克接管Twitter时，他对恢复 "言论自由 "充满了野心。他希望这个平台能够 "被足够信任"，并表示这 "不是为了赚钱"。

When Elon Musk took over Twitter, he was full of lofty ambitions about bringing back "free speech" .He wanted the platform to be "maximally trusted" and said this "isn't a way to make money".

此前，“蓝V”认证是用来表示高知名度账户的真实性，由推特发放，不需要认证费用，但只有推特自己才能决定谁能得到它。经过验证的用户的推文会被推广的可能性比其他账户大。拥有认证者还可以使用额外的功能，比如可以自由编辑已发送的推文。

防止机器人入侵

社交媒体平台上的机器人减少了推特的广告收入和订阅付费。马斯克经常对推特上有虚假账户的问题表示担忧。他曾一度搁置了推特收购计划，就因为他对该公司前管理团队公布的机器人账户数量不甚相信。

Bots on social media platforms can hurt their ability to grow advertising revenue or paid-for subscriptions.Mr Musk has often expressed concerns about how many fake or spam accounts are on Twitter. At one point he put his $44bn plan to buy the social media platform on hold as he queried the number of bots disclosed by the firm's previous management team.

马斯克说：“为认证收费是解决高级人工智能机器人伪装的唯一可行途径。付费认证大大增加了机器人运作成本，并使其更容易被识别。”

Mr Musk said the changes were “the only realistic way to address advanced AI bot swarms taking over”. Mr Musk said paid verification significantly increases the cost of using bots and makes it easier to identify them.

防止冒名使用后滥用权威

“蓝V”认证在2022年11月最初推出时很混乱，很多高仿号为了冒充得更像大牌和名人，甚至为“蓝V”认证付费。其中许多人假装是马斯克本人。这迫使推特在不到一周的时间里暂停了这项功能，然后在接下来的一个月里才重新启动，并只能由推特自己进行认证。一些有争议的组织和个人此前也拥有了“蓝V”认证，包括塔利班官员及其在阿富汗的重要支持者。

The initial launch was chaotic in November, as people started impersonating big brands and celebrities and paying for the blue tick badge in order to make them look authentic. Many pretended to be Mr Musk himself.

This forced Twitter to pause the feature after less than a week, before it was relaunched the following month.

弊病仍存

社交媒体用户批评推特的这一举措。一位匿名的推特验证团队前工作人员告诉BBC："我们的首要目标是保护用户免受实际伤害，但是现在适得其反，经过认证的用户将利用他们的权力和存在感来影响全球用户，从而带来更多错误信息和实际伤害。"

However, the move has been criticised by some social media users. A former worker on Twitter's verification team who asked to remain anonymous told the BBC: "Our number one goal for my team was to protect users from real world harm and this screams the complete opposite to me.Verified users will use their power and their presence on the platform to influence anything from misinformation to actual harm for users all around the world. " 

骨干流失

马斯克的做法使一批在裁员中幸存的高管主动离职，包括负责保护用户数据的人员。首席安全官Lea Kissner在推特上说：“虽然做出这个决定很艰难，但我已经决定离开推特。”信任和安全主管Yoel Roth也辞职了，此前他曾坚定地为马斯克的内容审核政策辩护。马斯克曾称赞他为推特正在进行的打击有害错误信息和仇恨言论所作的努力。

Mr Musk's actions have prompted the departures of a rash of high-profile executives who had survived the staff cuts, including people in charge of protecting user data.

Yoel Roth, the site's head of trust and safety, also resigned just a day after staunchly defending Mr Musk's content moderation policy to advertisers.

信息闭塞

埃隆·马斯克的新政策现在基本上排挤了非付费用户，让他们无法成为流量中的一员。这意味着未经验证的推特用户将更难让他们的推文收到喜欢或转发。

这一系列事件都给推特提出了一个严峻的生存问题，推特来到了应该谨慎对待用户输出内容的节骨眼上，它本应是一个追求“内容至上”的地方——推文因其内容的质量高而被更多浏览。这本是推特成功的一个利器。但现在，似乎已经物非人亦非了。

query

v. to express doubt about whether sth is correct or not 

怀疑；表示疑虑

We queried the bill as it seemed far too high.

账单上的费用似乎太高了，我们对此表示怀疑。

impersonate

v. to pretend to be sb in order to trick people or to entertain them

冒充

It allows the attacker to impersonate the victim. 

这将允许黑客冒充受害者。

disseminate

v. to spread information, knowledge, etc. so that it reaches many people

散布，传播（信息、知识等）

Political advocacy groups have begun to use information services to disseminate information that is then accessed by the public via personal computer.

政治宣传团体已经开始使用信息服务来传播信息，公众可以通过个人电脑获取这些信息。

原文链接：

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-64294613

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-65095684

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-65156216

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-63597087

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/apr/03/twitter-legacy-blue-ticks-remain-despite-elon-musks-verification-subscription-threat