紐時賞析／美國大選將至…假訊息、陰謀論氾濫成災 選務官員小心應戰

Elections Officials Battle a Deluge of Disinformation

假訊息氾濫成災 選務官員小心應戰

Tate Fall is overwhelmed.

塔特．福爾快撐不住了。

When she signed on to be director of elections in Cobb County, Georgia, last year, she knew she’d be registering voters and recruiting poll workers, maybe fixing up voting machines.

她去年受雇為喬治亞州科布郡選務主任時，她知道自己要負責登記選民和招募投票站工作人員，或許還要維修投票機。

She didn’t expect the unending flood of disinformation — or at least, she wasn’t prepared for how much it would overtake her job. She has had election deniers shout at her at public meetings, fielded weekend calls from politicians panicked about a newly circulating falsehood, and even reviewed conspiracy theories circulating on Nextdoor forums that might worsen skepticism among distrustful constituents already doubtful that the democratic system is reliable and secure.

她沒有預料到假訊息會源源不絕湧來，或者該說，她對這些事如此占據她的工作沒有做好準備。她曾在公開會議上被選舉否認派大吼，周末接聽政治人物對新流傳的假訊息感到驚慌的電話，甚至還要檢視在Nextdoor論壇流傳的陰謀論。一些抱持懷疑的選民早就質疑這套民主制度是否可靠安全，這些陰謀論可能加劇他們的懷疑。

And that was before the election went sideways.

而這些狀況還是在選舉出問題之前。

In the weeks since former President Donald Trump was targeted in an assassination attempt and Kamala Harris replaced President Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee, adding Tim Walz to the ticket, conspiracy theories have surged. The claims were pushed by pundits and politicians like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican known for promoting far-right conspiracy theories, who represents part of Fall’s jurisdiction.

自從前總統川普成為一樁刺殺案的目標，以及賀錦麗取代拜登總統成為民主黨提名人，加上選擇副手華茲，幾周來陰謀論激增。這些說法是由專家和眾議員格林等政治人物推動。格林是個以宣揚極右派陰謀論聞名的共和黨人，代表福爾的選區。

The implications for Fall’s workload will not be good, she said, noting that conspiracy theories can make it harder to reach constituents who already find elections to be mystifying, like “magical” events.

福爾表示，這對她工作量的影響不會很好，並指出一些選民已對選舉感到迷惑，認為它像「魔幻」事件，陰謀論可能讓接觸這些選民更加困難。

“Anytime there’s a big event, that’s an opportunity for bad actors to seize on that and act on it,” said Fall, 30. “It’s our job to make sure we’re answering those questions effectively and communicating to our voters.”

30歲的福爾說：「無論何時，只要發生重大事件，都是壞人把握並採取行動的機會。我們的工作是確保我們有效回答這些問題，並和選民溝通。」

Increasingly, her generation of elections officials must multitask as defenders against disinformation and its consequences. On any given day, they are debunking claims that masses of dead people are contaminating the voting pool or that mail-in balloting is susceptible to fraud. In just the past year, they have been flooded with inane demands for details about their employees, faced harassment campaigns targeted at their female family members, received intimidating letters laced with fentanyl and been subjected to fake threats of bombings and break-ins.

她的世代的選舉官員逐漸必須承擔多重任務，以作為抵擋者對抗假訊息和其後果。每一天，他們都在駁斥不實說法，這些說法宣稱大量已死的人汙染選民名單，或郵寄投票容易出現詐欺。僅在過去一年，他們就接到大量無聊的要求，想知道員工細節，還要面對針對其女性家庭成員的騷擾活動，接到含芬太尼的恐嚇信件，以及關於炸彈和入侵的虛假威脅。

文／Tiffany Hsu　譯／羅方妤

說文解字看新聞

【張佑生】

近年來，每逢選舉，假訊息(disinformation)流竄，已是不分國界的現象，甚至出現「認知作戰」(Cognitive warfare)的講法，執政者動輒用來反擊不同意見，是言之成理或只是甩鍋方便，讀者宜慎思明辨。

Deluge指暴雨洪水，a deluge of something是大量事件同時發生，譯為「氾濫」符合水的意象：Everyone agrees that somebody, somewhere, ought to do something to shelter the public from this polluted deluge of information.

陰謀論(conspiracy theories)的主題通常是慘劇，例如美國總統甘迺迪遇刺、911恐攻事件，或是海嘯、強震、疫情，通常是認為太扯時才會用這個字，帶有貶意：Did you ever swallow the conspiracy theory about Kennedy?

Debunk是拆穿某種說法或信念為假，後面接a myth／a notion／an idea：The study debunks the myth that men are better at math than women.