Facebook移除数百个虚假帐号，疑与《大纪元时报》有关

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Facebook移除数百个虚假帐号，疑与《大纪元时报》有关

《纽约时报》2019-12-23 16:10:47Facebook曝光的这一网络使用了由人工智能生成的虚假个人资料照片。
Sign up for NYT Chinese-language Morning Briefing.[欢迎点击此处、或发送邮件至cn.letters@nytimes.com订阅《纽约时报》中文简报。]Facebook said on Friday that it had removed hundreds of accounts with ties to the Epoch Media Group, parent company of the Falun Gong-related publication and conservative news outlet The Epoch Times.Facebook周五表示，该平台移除了与大纪元媒体集团(Epoch Media Group)有关的数百个帐号。该集团是与法轮功有关的保守派媒体《大纪元时报》(The Epoch Times)的母公司。The accounts, including pages, groups and Instagram feeds meant to be seen in both the United States and Vietnam, presented a new wrinkle to researchers: fake profile photos generated with the help of artificial intelligence.这些帐号（包括专页、群组和Instagram流）借助人工智能生成伪造的个人资料照片，给研究人员带来了新的挑战。计算机科学家一直以来担心，人工智能可能被用于发起大规模的虚假信息活动。现在他们表示，这一技术已在Facebook平台被加以利用，这种现象令人担忧。The idea that artificial intelligence could be used to create wide-scale disinformation campaigns has long been a fear of computer scientists. And they said it was worrying to see it already being used in a coordinated effort on Facebook.610个Facebook帐号、89个Facebook专页、156个群组和72个Instagram帐号发布了有关美国的内容，包括特朗普总统弹劾案、保守派意识形态、政治候选人、贸易和宗教等政治新闻和议题。While the technology used to create the fake profile photos was most likely a far cry from the sophisticated A.I. systems being created in labs at big tech companies like Google, the network of fake accounts showed “an eerie, tech-enabled future of disinformation,” said Graham Brookie, director of the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab.“这是一个庞大的、肆无忌惮的虚假网络，拥有不同层级的虚假帐号和自动操作，系统地发布了具有两个意识形态重点的内容：支持唐纳德·特朗普、反对中国政府，”大西洋理事会旗下的数字取证研究实验室(Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab)主任格雷厄姆·布鲁克(Graham Brookie)表示。Scientists have already shown that machines can generate images and sounds that are indistinguishable from the real thing or spew vast volumes of fake text, which could accelerate the creation of false and misleading information. This year, researchers at a Canadian company even built a system that learned to imitate the voice of the podcaster Joe Rogan by analyzing audio from his old podcasts. It was a shockingly accurate imitation.该实验室和另一家研究虚假信息的公司格拉菲卡(Graphika)发布了一份联合报告，分析了Facebook移除这些帐号的情况。The people behind the network of 610 Facebook accounts, 89 Facebook Pages, 156 Groups and 72 Instagram accounts posted about political news and issues in the United States, including President Trump’s impeachment, conservative ideology, political candidates, trade and religion.大纪元媒体集团在发给《纽约时报》的电子邮件中否认它与Facebook所针对的网络有关，并表示Facebook在发布结论之前未与该公司联系。“This was a large, brazen network that had multiple layers of fake accounts and automation that systematically posted content with two ideological focuses: support of Donald Trump and opposition to the Chinese government,” Mr. Brookie said in an interview.Facebook称，该网络背后的人使用人工智能来生成个人资料图片。他们依靠一种被称为生成对抗网络(GAN)的人工智能。这些网络可以通过一种被称为机器学习的过程自学，以创建逼真的面部图像，即使它们不属于某个真实的人。The Atlantic Council’s lab and another company, Graphika, which also studies disinformation, released a joint report analyzing the Facebook takedown.Facebook表示，这些帐号通过混合使用虚假和真实的美国帐号，来管理平台上的专页和群组，从而掩盖他们的活动。Facebook说，这些不真实的活动围绕着一家名为“美丽生活”（The Beauty of Life，简称The BL）的媒体展开。11月，事实检查机构Snopes曾表示，The BL“在Facebook上建立了一个虚假帝国”。The Epoch Media Group denied in an email sent to The New York Times that it was linked to the network targeted by Facebook, and said that Facebook had not contacted the company before publishing its conclusions.Facebook安全政策负责人纳撒尼尔·格莱谢尔(Nathaniel Gleicher)表示，Facebook从7月开始对The BL进行调查，并在今年秋天该网络变得更加积极地发布信息时加快了努力。他说，Facebook正在继续调查与The BL相关的“其他连接和网络”。The people behind the network used artificial intelligence to generate profile pictures, Facebook said. They relied on a type of artificial intelligence called generative adversarial networks. These networks can, through a process called machine learning, teach themselves to create realistic images of faces, even though they do not belong to a real person.Facebook表示，该网络在Facebook和Instagram的广告支出不到950万美元。周五，Facebook表示，The BL将被该社交网络封禁。Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s head of security policy, said in an interview that “using A.I.-generated photos for profiles” has been talked about for several months, but for Facebook, this is “the first time we’ve seen a systemic use of this by actors or a group of actors to make accounts look more authentic.”《大纪元时报》和The BL否认彼此有所关联，但Facebook表示，已经发现该网络与大纪元媒体集团以及在越南代表其工作的个人之间，存在协作进行发布不真实内容的行为。He added that this A.I. technique did not actually make it harder for the company’s automated systems to detect the fakes, because the systems focus on patterns of behavior among accounts.大纪元媒体集团在电子邮件中表示，The BL由该公司一名前雇员创立，并雇用了部分前大纪元雇员。该公司表示：“但是，我们某些前员工在The BL工作并不能证明这两个组织之间存在任何联系。”Ben Nimmo, director of investigations at Graphika, said that “we need more research into A.I.-generated imagery like this, but it takes a lot more to hide a fake network than just the profile pictures.”一位Facebook女发言人表示，直到上周五早间，The BL的高管仍是大纪元媒体集团专页上的活跃管理员。Facebook said the accounts masked their activities by using a combination of fake and authentic American accounts to manage pages and groups on the platforms. The coordinated, inauthentic activity, Facebook said, revolved around the media outlet The BL — short for “The Beauty of Life” — which the fact-checking outlet Snopes said in November was “building a fake empire on Facebook and getting away with it.”8月，在NBC报道称《大纪元时报》掩盖了它与宣传特朗普总统和阴谋论内容的Facebook广告之间的联系后，Facebook封禁了《大纪元时报》广告。本文根据时报英文报道编译。编译：纽约时报中文网

Source: Facebook移除数百个虚假帐号，疑与《大纪元时报》有关