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TikTok time-bomb 

定时炸弹TikTok

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抖音威胁论：美国准备什么时候禁抖音（TikTok）？

A popular app for silly video clips raises some serious questions

一款流行的无聊短视频应用引发了一些严肃的问题

If this article were a TikTok video, it would already be almost over—and you would be smiling. TikTok’s 15-second clips are all the rage among teenage netizens. The app was downloaded more than 750m times in the past 12 months, more than Facebook plus its sister services, Instagram and WhatsApp, combined. Fun aside, TikTok raises serious questions—about data geopolitics, the power of internet incumbents and who sees what online.

如果这篇文章是抖音国际版TikTok中的视频，那现在差不多该结束了-而且你很可能会从头笑到尾。TikTok的15秒短片在青少年网民中大行其道。在过去12个月，这款应用的下载量已经超过7.5亿次，比脸书及其旗下Instagram和WhatsApp的总和都多。除了带来乐趣之外，TikTok还引发了一系列严肃的问题——数据地缘政治、互联网巨头的影响力以及谁在监管。

TikTok is YouTube on steroids. It bombards users with self-repeating clips. It forms a genre of quick-hit entertainment: a prank, a dare, a teenager looking pretty. Most are produced by adolescents, with easy-to-use editing tools. The app makes money from adverts and commissions on digital tips. It may one day generate revenue from e-commerce, like its Chinese sister app, Douyin. Both are owned by ByteDance, a Beijing firm valued at $75bn, more than any other private startup.

TikTok好比嗑了兴奋剂的Youtube。它会以不断自动重复的视频剪辑轰炸用户。它打造出一种快速流行的娱乐方式：一个恶作剧，一次挑战，一个好看的年轻人。大多数视频是青少年使用操作简单的编辑工具制作而成。该应用程序通过广告和粉丝打赏的佣金赚钱。也可能有一天，它会像国内版抖音一样，发展电商业务获得收益。这两款应用都属于字节跳动（位于北京），其市值750亿美元，高于其他任何初创私企。

注释：

something on steroids：：used to say that something is much bigger, stronger, more impressive etc than something else that is similar to it – used humorously

The China connection has Washington in a tizzy. On November 1st it emerged that America’s government has opened a national-security review of ByteDance’s takeover in 2017 of Musical.ly, an app developed in China, which later became TikTok. On November 5th congressmen lambasted ByteDance for not showing up to a hearing.

TikTok与中国的关系让美国颇为不安。11月1日，有消息称美国政府已经对字节跳动在2017年收购Musical.ly公司一案进行了国家安全审查。Mudical.ly是一款在中国开发的应用，后来与TikTok合并。11月5日，美国国会议员痛斥字节跳动没有出席听证会。

注释：

抖音海外版被美国国安调查了？

http://www.sohu.com/a/351582845_100194960

Hawks argue that TikTok gives the government in Beijing access to data on millions of Americans and that it censors content the regime does not like. If America’s sanctions on Huawei, a maker of telecoms gear, are about disentangling electronics supply chains, its assault on ByteDance is an attempt to keep the data flows of America and China separate. ByteDance rejects these accusations, saying that non-Chinese user data sit on non-Chinese servers, and that decisions about what not to show American users are made in America.

激进派认为，TikTok为北京提供数百万美国人的信息，且会过滤掉中国GOV不认同的内容。如果美国对华为（通信设备制造商）的制裁表现为切断其电子产品供应链，那么对字节跳动的攻击则是希望分开美国与中国的数据流。但字节跳动否认了这些指控，表示非中国用户的数据并没有存储在中国的服务器上，而且若有内容被删减也是基于美国的国情，与中国无关。

注释：

be about to do 与be about doing 的区别：前者为“即将做某事”，后者为 “关于什么，此处的about 为介词”例子：I was just about to ask you the same thing.我刚才正要问你同一件事。Why shouldn’t life be about doing what you love? 人活一世，为什么不去做自己热爱的事情呢？

For his part, Mark Zuckerberg is less worried about data sovereignty and more about competition from TikTok, China’s first runaway web success in America. Facebook is pulling out the big guns it deploys against fast-growing upstarts. In late 2018 it launched Lasso, a TikTok clone. An independent developer recently unearthed a feature hidden in Instagram’s code that apes TikTok’s editing tools. It is cold comfort to Mr Zuckerberg that should his defences fail, Big Tech’s critics will have to concede that digital monopolies are not that invincible after all.

对马克·扎克伯格而言，他不太担心数据所属问题，而是更加关注来自TikTok（首款来自中国，在美国大获成功的应用）的竞争压力。于是脸书亮出杀手锏，遏制快速发展的新兴公司。2018年末，脸书推出TikTok克隆版——Lasso。最近，一位独立开发者发现Instagram的代码模仿了TikTok的编辑工具。如果扎克伯格防御失败，科技巨头的批评者就不得不承认电子垄断并非牢不可破。但这对扎克伯格先生来说，如同隔靴搔痒，无济于事。

注释：

偷师TikTok？Instagram正在开发名为“Clips”的视频剪辑功能 

https://m.cifnews.com/article/50456

Critics of artificial intelligence are also watching the Chinese app closely. What users see on Facebook and other Western social media is in part still down to who their friends are and what they share. TikTok’s main feed, called “For You”, is determined by algorithm alone: it watches how users behave in the app and uses the information to decide what to play next. Such systems create the ultimate filter bubble.

那些人工智能批评家也紧盯着这款来自中国的应用程序。用户在脸书或其它西方社交媒体上看到的内容在一定程度上仍取决于他们的好友是谁，以及他们分享的是什么。TikTok主要内容源于其中“为你推荐”模块。内容完全取决于后台算法，根据用户浏览记录针对性地“投喂”下一条视频。这类系统会使用户落入无尽的“过滤气泡”。

注释：

过滤气泡（英语：filter bubble），又称为同温层、个人化资料过滤、筛选小圈圈，是一种网站针对个人化搜寻而提供筛选后内容的结果。網站內嵌的演算法會透過使用者的地區、先前活動紀錄或是搜尋結果，給予使用者想要的或是觀點一致的結果。這種結果可能會導致使用者越來越看不到他們不同意的觀點或資訊，使得認知過於單向，並處於他們的文化、意識形態氣泡之中。

All these worries would be allayed if TikTok turns out to be a passing fad. In a way, the app is only riding on other social networks. It relies on people’s Facebook or Twitter accounts for many sign-ins. TikTok owes part of its success to relentless advertising on rival services. According to some estimates, it spent perhaps $1bn on social-media ads in 2018. At the same time, many who download TikTok quickly tire of its endless digital sugar-rush.

除非TikTok开始过气，否则很难消除这些顾虑。某种程度上来说，TikTok只是借助了其它社交平台，通过关联用户的脸书、推特账号直接登陆。TikTok的成功部分归功于在竞争对手页面投放的大量广告。据估计，2018年TikTok在社交媒体广告上的费用可能高达10亿美元。但与此同时，也有很多用户在下载不久后便厌倦了TikTok这种无休止的垃圾快乐。

注释：

Sugar Rush意指下列事物：食糖后兴奋感，又称为「Sugar High」，一种在摄取大量糖份之后会产生的兴奋感。

Slowing growth may not stop politicians from hobbling the app. They could decide to bar it from America altogether. For once, Mr Zuckerberg would be cheering them on.

美国监管部门并不会因为TikTok用户增速放缓而放过它，还是可能会要求全美禁用该应用程序。至少这一次，扎克伯格会举双手赞同。

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