世界溫和情緒與伊斯蘭國的數字戰爭

Last week, I was browsing the internet for information about the tragic attack in Nice on Bastille Day, when I spotted a story that suggested disturbing new images were circulating of the Isis attacks on Paris inside the Bataclan theatre late last year. I was about to click “Search” — but then I had a second thought and stopped.

不久前，我在互聯網上搜索有關尼斯“巴士底日”（Bastille Day，即法國國慶日）悲慘襲擊的信息時，發現一則報道稱有一些新的駭人圖片在流傳，這些圖片反映的是去年年底“伊拉克和黎凡特伊斯蘭國”(ISIS)在巴黎巴塔克蘭劇院(Bataclan theatre)的那場襲擊。我想點擊“搜索”——但轉念一想又停住了。

Until recently, I assumed that one of the great benefits of the internet was that it could give access to any information we wanted, any time we wanted. But, as the fight with Islamist extremism intensifies I now realise that this privilege has turned into a curse. These days, the war is not only being waged on the battlefield, or shopping malls and seaside parades; a second front has opened up in cyber space and inside our minds. And what makes this second — largely hidden — fight so insidious is that it involves all of us, sitting in our own homes in front of our computer screens or mobile phones.

直到最近，我認爲互聯網最偉大的好處之一是，它可以讓我們隨時找到我們想要的任何信息。但是，隨着我們與伊斯蘭極端主義的戰鬥不斷升級，現在我意識到，互聯網帶給我們的這一特權變成了一種詛咒。如今，這場戰爭不僅在戰場上、購物中心和海邊遊行隊伍中進行，並且已經在網絡空間和我們的思想中開闢了第二戰場。這個基本上爲隱蔽狀態的第二戰場之所以是巨大的隱患，原因就在於，它涉及到我們所有人——當我們坐在自己家中，對着電腦屏幕或手機時。

The reason is that Isis has taken the media game to a new level. In the past, terrorist and insurgent groups have often used the media to propagate their messages. What makes Isis unusual is that it is not only extraordinarily adept at mastering modern media platforms but that it has made this a strategic priority. One goal is to spread fear. The other is to attract new recruits.

原因在於，ISIS已經把媒體遊戲升級到了一個新水平。過去，恐怖分子和叛亂組織往往利用媒體傳播其信息。ISIS的不同之處在於，它不僅非常熟練地掌握了現代媒體平臺，還把這作爲了一種戰略重點。一個目的是散佈恐懼，另一個目的是吸引新成員加入。

Its media outreach has been so effective that some US intelligence observers even suspect that Isis has studied western consumer giants to replicate their marketing tactics. More specifically, it seeks to build “audience engagement” and “reach”, creating memorable “content” that can be easily “shared”. Hence those horrific images of beheadings and so on. Indeed, reports suggest that Isis has recently even put GoPro cameras on the end of guns to produce images that will appeal to millennial video game players.

ISIS的媒體推廣之有效，以至於美國一些情報觀察者甚至認爲，它已經研究過西方消費行業巨頭，以效仿它們的營銷策略。更具體地說，ISIS尋求建立“受衆互動”和“接觸”，創造容易“分享”的令人難忘的“內容”。因此，纔會有那些展示斬首等畫面的可怕圖片。的確，報告稱ISIS最近甚至把GoPro攝像機裝在槍支末端，以拍攝可以吸引千禧一代視頻遊戲玩家的影像。

Can anyone fight back? Until recently, it has seemed not. But this week alliance officials have been meeting in Washington to discuss tactics. “We have been talking about how we can use social media to catch this stuff before it radicalises people,” Boris Johnson, UK foreign minister said on Friday.

有人能予以反擊嗎？直到最近，答案似乎是否定的。但是，盟軍官員最近在華盛頓召開會議討論了策略。“我們討論瞭如何在這些內容使人們變得激進前，利用社交媒體找到它們，”英國外交大臣鮑里斯•約翰遜(Boris Johnson)上週五表示。

And if Rick Stengel, a senior State Department official who used to be editor of Time magazine, is to be believed, the tactics are changing. In particular the US government realises it is unlikely to succeed by producing its own American-branded content, which tends to be too clunky and dull. Instead, US officials are encouraging moderate Muslim groups to produce anti-Isis material. “Isil is losing the digital war,” Stengel recently told the Aspen Ideas Festival. “Over the last year, there has been an exponential increase in anti-Isil voices . . . [these are] creating six times as much content as Isil is creating.”

如果《時代》(Time)雜誌前主編、美國國務院(State Department)高級官員裏克•施滕格爾(Rick Stengel)的話可信的話，策略正在改變。特別是美國政府認識到，不太可能通過製作美國品牌的內容取得成功，因爲這些內容往往老套又枯燥。相反，美國官員正在鼓勵溫和派穆斯林羣體制作反ISIS的材料。“ISIS即將輸掉這場數字化戰爭，”施滕格爾最近在阿斯彭理念節(Aspen Ideas festival)表示，“過去一年，反對ISIS的聲音呈指數式增長……（這些聲音）製造的內容是ISIS的6倍。”

At the same time, Silicon Valley — under US government pressure — has also become more efficient at removing Isis content from the web. Academics at George Washington University, for example, have been tracking Isis’s presence on Twitter — and while it was increasing rapidly two years ago, it is now declining: accounts associated with the group are rapidly being closed down.

與此同時，在美國政府施壓下，硅谷的那些科技公司從網上刪除ISIS內容的效率也越來越高。例如，喬治華盛頓大學(George Washington University)的學者追蹤了ISIS在Twitter上的存在，發現儘管兩年前ISIS的存在增長迅速，但是現在正不斷縮小：與該組織相關的賬戶正迅速被關閉。

That sounds encouraging. But there is a crucial catch. One of the more interesting statistics to emerge over the last couple of years is that — contrary to western perceptions — English is not the most prevalent language for Isis material. Instead, around 85 per cent of Isis’s social media posts are in Arabic, about 12 per cent in Russian — the rest in English or French.

這聽起來令人振奮。但是，存在一個關鍵問題。過去幾年出現的一個較有趣的數據是，英語並非ISIS材料最普遍使用的語言——這與西方的印象不同。相反，ISIS在社交媒體上發佈的帖子有約85%用的是阿拉伯語，約12%用的是俄語，其餘用的纔是英語或法語。

In theory, this should hamper the spread of Isis messages in the west; in reality, however, the mainstream media has sometimes done Isis’s own “work”, by reproducing these messages — in translation. So have numerous websites and blogs. “Today beheading videos get taken down very fast, sometimes after just 25 views,” says Stengel. “Most people [in the west] see images [like beheadings] through the [western] media.”

從理論上講，這應該會阻礙ISIS的信息在西方傳播；然而，事實上，主流媒體有時會通過翻譯複製這些信息，替ISIS完成他們自己的“工作”。不計其數的網站和博客都是如此。“現在斬首視頻很快就會被刪除，有時刪除時的觀看次數僅爲25次，”施滕格爾稱，“（西方）多數人是通過（西方）媒體看到的圖片（比如斬首的圖片）。”

Hence my moment of remorse earlier this week. In theory, one way to deal with this cyber war with Isis might be for US officials to ban the reproduction of Isis visual messages. Stengel is reluctant to back that idea. Instead, he calls for tasteful, thoughtful restraint. That sounds sensible — as a journalist I would argue that deliberate censorship is neither feasible nor desirable in a world ruled by the internet.

於是就有了開頭那一幕——我先是想搜、一轉念又停住了手。理論上，應對這場與ISIS的網絡戰爭的一種方式，可能是美國官員明令禁止對ISIS的視覺信息進行復制。施滕格爾不願支持該觀點。相反，他呼籲有選擇、經過思考地剋制。這聽起來是明智的——作爲一名記者，我認爲，在這個互聯網所主宰的世界裏，有計劃的審查既不可行也不可取。

But can you really impose “restraint” in a world where media outlets are fighting for clicks? Where does censorship start and dignity begin? And how, above all, can you counter the natural human tendency towards voyeurism which turns “news” into “war porn”?

但是，在如今這個各媒體爭奪點擊量的世界裏，你真的可以施加“剋制”嗎？審查從哪開始，體面何時入場？最重要的是，你能對抗人類把“新聞”變爲“戰爭色情片”的窺探陰私天性嗎？

There are no easy answers. But the stakes are rising. Moreover, this is a “war” in which we are all involved, since it is our minds that are being targeted with hate — and fear. Reflect on that the next time you see a picture of a terrorist outrage or hear about new atrocities; and before you press that seductively easy button labelled as “Search”.

這個問題沒有簡單答案。但是此事日益關係重大。此外，這是一場我們所有人都被捲入的“戰爭”，因爲仇恨和恐懼瞄準的正是我們的思想。下一次當你看到有關恐怖分子暴行的圖片或新暴行的新聞時，在你輕輕點擊那個充滿誘惑力的標有“搜索”的按鈕前，請想一想這一點。