文稿 | 科技巨头已变成老大哥
原标题：Big Tech Is Big Brother
视频首发于 2019 年 6 月 30 日
The year is 1984. One company – Microsoft – dominates the computer world. It's their way or the highway.
今年是 1984 年。一家公司，微软，统治了计算机世界。要么接受，要么滚蛋。
Conform or die.
顺从，或是死亡。
This snapshot in time was perfectly captured in one of the most famous commercials in TV history.
这一实时快照被电视史上最著名的一个广告完美捕捉。
Set in a gray, dystopian future, row after row of men stare blankly at a giant screen from which Big Brother – the all-powerful leader from George Orwell's classic novel 1984 – addresses them.
在一个灰暗，反乌托邦的未来，一排接一排的人茫然地盯着一块巨型屏幕，在上面，老大哥——乔治·奥威尔的经典小说《1984》里全权在握的领袖——在向他们讲话。
Suddenly, riot police burst into the hall, chasing a beautiful, blonde woman in a white shirt and red shorts. Before they can grab her, she hurls a sledgehammer into the screen, shattering Big Brother and his grip on the masses. The narrator informs us that Apple's breakthrough product, the Macintosh computer, will be the device that sets us all free.
突然，防暴警察闯进大厅，追逐着一位穿着白衬衫和红色短裤的漂亮金发女人。在他们抓住她之前，她将一把大锤抛向屏幕，砸碎了老大哥和他对群众的控制。旁白告诉我们苹果的突破性产品，麦金塔计算机，将会成为解放我们所有人的设备。
Looking back, Apple largely lived up to its promise. A new wave of companies, each in its own way, followed the example set by Apple's legendary CEO, Steve Jobs.
回想起来，苹果基本上兑现了它的承诺。新一波的计算机，都以各自的方式，追随了苹果的传奇CEO史蒂夫·乔布斯所树立的榜样。
Google gave us instant access to vast amounts of information.
谷歌给了我们即时可得的海量信息。
Facebook gave us a new way to connect with friends, family, and the world.
脸书给了我们新的途径去联系朋友，家庭，和世界。
Twitter brought this world to us in real time.
推特将这个世界实时带到我们面前。
And YouTube allowed anyone with a smartphone to become a virtual broadcast network unto themselves.
而且油管让任何有智能手机的人都能把自己变成一个虚拟广播网络。
It was glorious and empowering.
这值得光荣且鼓舞人心。
But that was yesterday. Today, it's 1984 all over again. Big Brother is back – with an important twist.
但那已是昨日。今天《1984》再次重演。老大哥回来了，且经历了一次重要转折。
Our former liberators now want to be our masters.
我们曾经的解放者如今想要成为我们的主人。
Apple, Google, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, the giants of social media, are demanding conformity to their values.
苹果，谷歌，油管，脸书还有推特，社交媒体的巨头们，正在要求顺从他们的价值观。
It's their way or the highway. Conform or die.
要么接受，要么滚蛋。顺从，或是死亡。
This image is perfectly captured not by an ad, but by this recent real-life scene: Row after row of men and women stare up at Tim Cook, Apple's CEO, as he makes a presentation – ironically – before a civil rights group.
完美捕捉这一图景的不是广告，而是最近的真实情景：一排接一排的男男女女抬头凝望蒂姆·库克，苹果的CEO，他正在做演示，讽刺的是，就在一个民权组织面前。
'We only have one message for those who seek to push hate, division, and violence: You have no place on our platforms,' Cook tells his audience. 'You have no home here.'
「我们对那些试图推进仇恨，分裂和暴力的人只有一个信息：你在我们平台没有立足之地，」库克告诉他的观众。「你们在这不受欢迎。」
'Hate'? 'Division'? According to whom?
「仇恨」？「分裂」？谁说了准？
The answer is obvious: according to Apple, Google, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. They are becoming the Big Brother Orwell foresaw.
答案是明显的：苹果，谷歌，油管，脸书和推特说了准。它们正在变成奥威尔所预见的老大哥。
Conform or die.
顺从，或是死亡。
Cook's ideas are exactly the same as his fellow chief executives at Google, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.
库克的想法完全相同于谷歌，油管，脸书和推特的CEO们。
Disagree with Big Brother on, say, politics, or morality, and Big Brother will shut you up by shutting you down.
不同意老大哥，比方说，在政治上或道德上，老大哥会屏蔽你，让你闭嘴。
And what is it that Big Brother doesn't like?
那老大哥不喜欢的是什么？
Well, Tim Cook, said it: anything that doesn't conform to his left-wing worldview.
好吧，蒂姆·库克，这样说了：任何不顺从他左翼世界观的。
The examples are numerous and growing.
例子数不胜数且不断增加。
Meghan Murphy, a Canadian feminist, is permanently banned from Twitter for refusing to refer to the transgendered by their preferred pronoun, and for writing 'women aren't men.'
梅根·墨菲，一名加拿大女权主义者，被推特永久封禁，因为她拒绝用他们的建议代词指代跨性别者，因为她写了「女人不是男人」。
Google, Facebook and Twitter all at various times refused to carry political ads from Tennessee Republican candidate Marsha Blackburn, promoting her conservative views. She's hardly the only one this has happened to.
谷歌，脸书和推特都多次拒绝刊登田纳西共和党候选人玛莎·布莱克伯恩的政治广告，拒绝宣传她的保守派观点。这种事绝不只是发生在她身上。
And, as many of you know, YouTube continues to restrict over 100 of PragerU's videos, finding them 'inappropriate for children.' These include titles like, 'Why Did America Fight the Korean War?'
还有，许多人都知道，油管不断限制了超过 100 支 PragerU 的视频，认为它们「儿童不宜。」这些视频中包括，「为什么美国要打朝鲜战争？」
Broad-based studies by the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology and by Northwestern University have confirmed what these examples clearly suggest: bias against conservatives at Google and other Big Tech sites.
美国行为研究与技术研究所和西北大学所做的大范围研究都证实这些例子清楚地表明：谷歌和其他科技巨头网站对保守派存有偏见。
And this is the bias we can plainly see. What we don't see, what Big Brother hides from us – what is referred to as 'shadow banning' – may be even more pernicious.
这些偏见是我们可以清楚看到的。我们没有看到的，老大哥向我们隐瞒的，即所谓的「暗中屏蔽」，或许更为恶劣。
If you're on the left, maybe you're okay with this. But if you're not on the left, or even if you are and you revere the First Amendment, you should be concerned. Very concerned. We are advancing swiftly toward an Orwellian, 1984 world of stifling, one-way-of-thinking conformity. This time, it's not a fictional story. It's real.
如果你是左派，你可能觉得这没什么问题。但如果你不是左派，或者你是左派，但你珍视宪法第一修正案，你就应该关心。非常关心。我们正迅速走向奥威尔式令人窒息的，顺从一种思考方式的 1984 世界。这一次，它不是虚构故事。它是真的。
What's the solution? Simply return to the open market of ideas that served Big Tech so well for so long. Stop the censorship and let people make up their own minds. Otherwise America – and the rest of what has been known as the Free World – will cease to be free.
解决办法是什么？只要回到长久以来让科技巨头良好运作的开放思想市场。停止审查并让人们自己判断。否则美国，还有其他一直被称为自由世界的地方，将不再自由。
That's how serious the Big Tech threat is.
科技巨头的威胁就是这么严重。
I'm Brent Bozell, founder of the Media Research Center, for Prager University.
我是布兰特·博泽尔，媒体研究中心的创始人，为 PragerU 制作。