Hundreds of Russians plug away at keyboards, spreading pro-Kremlin propaganda on social media sites and masterminding online hoaxes every day. They work in what have come to be known as “troll farms”, named after the derogatory nickname used for people who spread hate on the internet.

数以百计的俄罗斯人每天不停地敲击键盘，在社交媒体上传播亲克里姆林宫的宣传言论，策划一个又一个网络骗局。他们在所谓的“巨魔农场”(troll farm)工作，这个带有贬义的名称源于那些在网络上散播仇恨的人的绰号。

Adrian Chen, who visited a troll farm called the Internet Research Agency while reporting for The New York Times, believes that the Russians might be the most organised trolls.

在为《纽约时报》(New York Times)报道期间，Adrian Chen探访过一个美其名曰“互联网研究机构”(Internet Research Agency)的巨魔农场，他相信那里的俄罗斯人可能是最有组织的“巨魔”。

However, they are not unique — social media is being used to distort political debate around the world.

然而，他们并不是唯一这样做的人——在世界各地，社交媒体都被用于扭曲政治辩论。

In Russia, Mr Chen says, internet users may not be convinced by the comments left by trolls on internet sites. But trolling works by sowing seeds of distrust in online conversations. It pours cold water on social media’s promise to bring people together for frank discussion.

Chen表示，在俄罗斯，互联网用户可能不会听信“巨魔”在网站上留下的评论。但这种行为靠的是在网络对话中播下不信任的种子。人们原本希望社交媒体能让人们在一起坦诚讨论，但“巨魔”行为给这一希望泼了一盆冷水。

“This more insidious effect is to make the internet an unreliable source of information and to undermine the democratic nature of the internet. That is to the government’s advantage,” he says.

“更阴险的影响是让互联网沦为不可靠的信息源，削弱互联网的民主本质。这对政府是有利的，”他说。

Troll farms in Mexico and India work in a similar way, Mr Chen adds, and the same principle applied in “GamerGate”, an organised online harassment campaign against women in the video game industry, which erupted in 2014. “You can easily flood the internet with this garbage to try to drown out your opponents,” he says.

Chen补充道，墨西哥和印度的巨魔农场也是以类似方式运作的，同样的道理也适用于“GamerGate”事件。这起在线骚扰视频游戏业女性从业者的有组织事件发生在2014年。“你可以轻易用这种垃圾淹没互联网，试图盖过你的对手，”他说。

China also runs its own propaganda armies and monitors what people post online to see how public opinion is changing. Meanwhile Isis supporters have become expert in creating anonymous accounts that are used to spread propaganda and recruit potential terrorists. As soon as companies such as Facebook and Twitter shut these down, new ones appear.

中国也有自己的宣传大军，并对人们在网络上发表的言论进行监视，以查看民意变化。同时，“伊拉克和黎凡特伊斯兰国”(ISIS)的支持者成为了创建匿名账户的专家，这些账户被用来传播ISIS宣传内容和招募潜在恐怖分子。一旦Facebook和Twitter等公司关闭这些账户，就会有新的账户出现。

When social media sites first emerged, they appeared to give everybody the ability to broadcast their views, suggesting that a wider range of voices would be heard than in the mainstream media.

当社交媒体网站首次出现时，它们似乎赋予了每个人畅所欲言的能力，暗示人们会听到比主流媒体更广泛的声音。

However, a system that allows people to comment anonymously, and which makes it easy to retweet and share messages, is vulnerable to manipulation, particularly by organised groups with money and personnel — especially as the mainstream media seem willing to amplify their message.

然而，一个允许人们匿名评论、并且可以方便地转发和分享消息的系统很容易遭到操纵，尤其是受到拥有财力人力的有组织集团的操纵——特别是在主流媒体似乎愿意放大他们的声音的情况下。

Politicians have built large followings on social networks, thrilled to be able to reach voters directly. US President Barack Obama has more than 68m followers on Twitter, while the Indian prime minister Narendra Modi has more than 17m.

政治人士在社交媒体上有大批关注者，他们为能够直接接触选民而感到兴奋。美国总统巴拉克攠巴马(Barack Obama)在Twitter上有逾6800万关注者，而印度总理纳伦德拉莫迪(Narendra Modi)拥有逾1700万关注者。

But political debates that engage citizens are still rare, argues Professor Christian Fuchs, the director of the University of Westminster’s communication and media research institute. He points to Mr Obama’s use of his political account to promote a competition for a cruise to Alaska last month.

但威斯敏斯特大学(University of Westminster)传播和媒体研究院院长克里斯蒂安富克斯(Christian Fuchs)认为，真正吸引公民参与的政治辩论依然很少见。他举例子指出，上月奥巴马利用他的Twitter政治账户宣传一场竞赛，奖品是乘邮轮旅游阿拉斯加。

“Such populism 2.0 reduces the political public sphere to submit-and-win contests, political spectacles and personality politics dominated by leadership figures,” he says. “What is today largely missing are politically innovative users of social media that engage citizens in political conversations with each other, in which they have the chance to discuss and explore the complexity of the key political challenges the world faces today.”

“这种2.0版本的民粹主义将政治公共空间降级为‘提交并赢奖’的竞赛、政治表演以及由领导人物主导的人格政治，”他说，“当今基本上不存在有政治创意的社交媒体用户，他们能够发动公民在彼此间开展政治对话，在此过程中有机会讨论和探索当今世界面临的关键政治挑战的复杂性。”

Nick Anstead, assistant professor at the media department of the London School of Economics, says it is also a myth that social media is a way to reach large audiences for free.

伦敦政治经济学院(London School of Economics)传媒系助理教授尼克褠斯特德(Nick Anstead)表示，社交媒体是一种免费接触大批受众的方式的说法也是错误的。

“When people were first considering the internet and new media, there was certainly a sense that it was going to change the power dynamics, it would lead to a redistribution of power,” he says. But it is now clear that to thrive on social media, politicians have to have access not only to a large group of supporters and but also to money, he says.

“当人们最初考虑互联网和新媒体时，确实有种看法认为这些新事物将改变力量格局，导致力量的重新分配，”他说。但他表示，如今已经十分明显的是，如果要在社交媒体上走红，政治人士不仅必须拥有大批支持者，还需要资金。

In the 2008 US presidential election race, Obama’s campaign was seen as mastering the use of grass roots supporters to spread messages online — but it also spent 10 per cent of its paid media budget on buying digital advertising.

在2008年美国总统选战中，奥巴马的竞选被视为很好地利用了基层支持者来在线传播消息——但奥巴马选举团队也将10%的付费媒体预算用于购买数字广告。

Andrew Heyward, of the MIT Media Lab, says politicians’ social media strategies now resemble those of brands, with Republican Donald Trump by far the most successful presidential candidate.

麻省理工学院媒体实验室(MIT Media Lab)的安德鲁眠荭德(Andrew Heyward)表示，如今政治人士的社交媒体战略和品牌很像，这就是为什么共和党人唐纳德礠朗普(Donald Trump)成为遥遥领先的最成功的总统候选人。

Mr Trump has made so many waves on social media they have flooded into traditional media and given him so much coverage that he is only just buying his first traditional, mainstream media advertisements.

特朗普多次在社交媒体上掀起风浪，这些风浪涌入传统媒体，让他获得了铺天盖地的免费报道，以至于特朗普刚刚开始购买传统主流媒体广告。

Mr Heyward is using a new analytics tool to track the “horse race of ideas” in the US presidential election campaign.

海沃德使用了一种新的分析工具来追踪美国总统选战中的“思想赛马”。

Discussion of many topics on social media — from national security to immigration — reflects what is being said in the mainstream media, and vice versa, the study has shown.

这项研究表明，社交媒体上对许多话题的讨论——从国家安全到移民——反映出主流媒体正在进行的讨论，反之亦然。

Because of this, Mr Heyward is more optimistic that social networks can actually become the “virtual town hall meeting” that Twitter, at least, has aspired to be.

有鉴于此，海沃德对社交媒体能够变成“虚拟市政厅会议”抱着一种更加乐观的看法，至少Twitter有这样的志向。

“It is a brave new world,” he says. “But actually, ironically, even though it takes advantage of a modern and sophisticated technology, it is a throwback to what the Founding Fathers had in mind — a lively conversation.”

“这是一个美好新世界，”他说，“但具有讽刺意义的是，即使它利用精湛的现代技术，它其实是对开国先贤们愿景的回归——一场活跃的对话。”