VOA慢速英语--报道称伊朗媒体集团寻求全球影响力
时间：2018-12-16 作者：英语课 分类：2018年VOA慢速英语(八)月
Report: Iranian Media Group Seeks Worldwide Influence
Iran’s efforts to influence internet users around the world are larger than experts have thought, reports Reuters news agency.
Reuters said that Iran has a group of anonymous 1 websites and social media accounts in 11 important languages.
Facebook and other companies said last week that social media accounts and websites were part of an Iranian campaign. The goal was to influence public opinion in other countries.
Reuters studied 10 other websites and many accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.
The American internet security company FireEye and the Israeli company ClearSky studied Reuters’s research. The companies said that technical evidence showed a web of sites and social media accounts called the International Union of Virtual 2 Media, or IUVM.
Facebook, Twitter and Alphabet, the parent company of Google, took down some sites and accounts linked to IUVM last week.
IUVM spreads information from Iranian state media and other media providers supportive of Iranian policies on the internet. Often the provider makes it difficult to find out where the information first came from. Some of these media providers include Iran’s PressTV, FARS news agency and al-Manar TV, which is linked to the pro-Iranian militant 3 group Hezobollah in Lebanon. Representatives from those media companies or the Iranian government did not answer Reuters’ requests for comments.
Russia not alone in trying to influence elections
Since 2016, U.S. officials and media have been looking into possible Russian interference into the presidential election that year.
In July, a grand jury 4 in the United States brought charges against 12 Russians. They were accused of being intelligence officers trying to hack 5 computer systems of political groups in 2016. Russia has denied the charges.
U.S. officials also have warned that Russia could attempt to influence congressional elections in November.
Ben Nimmo is with the Digital Forensic 6 Research Lab at the Atlantic Council in Washington D.C. He said the Iranian operation was a large-scale one.
“This shows how easy it is to run an influence operation online, even when the level of skill is low.”
He said the Iranian operation depended on quantity not quality but still stayed secret for years.
Facebook spokesman 7 Jay Nancarrow said the company is continuing to investigate accounts and pages linked to Iran. The company, he said, took down more pages on Tuesday.
Twitter tweeted that it had removed 486 accounts for violating 8 its terms of use since last week. Twitter said it had suspended 770 accounts recently and of those “fewer than 100” had been based in the U.S.
YouTube blocked the IUVM TV page after Reuters contacted the company with questions about it.
Reuters has sought comments from IUVM, but has not received answers from the company. However, the company does not hide that it supports Iranian causes.
IUVM operates in languages including English, French, Arabic, Farsi, Urdu, Pashto, Russian, Turkish and Spanish.
I’m Mario Ritter.
Words in This Story
anonymous –adj. not named or identified
hack –v. to secretly get access to the files on a computer or network in order to get information or cause damage
scale –n. the size or level of something
- Sending anonymous letters is a cowardly act.寄匿名信是懦夫的行为。
- The author wishes to remain anonymous.作者希望姓名不公开。
- This reply is a virtual acceptance of our offer.这一回答实质上是接受了我们的建议。
- At that time the East India Company was the virtual ruler of Bengal.那时东印度公司是孟加拉的实际统治者。
- Some militant leaders want to merge with white radicals.一些好斗的领导人要和白人中的激进派联合。
- He is a militant in the movement.他在那次运动中是个激进人物。
- These twelve men are believed to compose the jury.据信，陪审团是由这12人组成的。
- The members of the jury were discharged from their duties.陪审员们被解除了职务。
- He made a hack at the log.他朝圆木上砍了一下。
- Early settlers had to hack out a clearing in the forest where they could grow crops.早期移民不得不在森林里劈出空地种庄稼。
- The report included his interpretation of the forensic evidence.该报告包括他对法庭证据的诠释。
- The judge concluded the proceeding on 10:30 Am after one hour of forensic debate.经过近一个小时的法庭辩论后，法官于10时30分宣布休庭。