This Is What a Digital Coup Looks Like | Carole Cadwalladr | TED

I have been feeling a lot of panic and fear about this talk and not just for the normal reasons the public speaking, although that's there too. But it's also because I want to say something meaningful and I've been overwhelmed by the enormity of what is happening right now. And there's a particular set of circumstances which have also been feeding into my confusion and denial. And that is because the last time that I stood on this stage it led to a three year legal battle culminated in London's High Court in which it felt like I was on trial for my life because I was. My career, my reputation, my finances, even my home was on the line. All because I came here to warn you that I didn't think democracy was going to survive the technology that you're building. However incredible it is. In fact I was the person who almost didn't survive and pretty much everything that I was warning about is now coming true. I can't shoot a coat. It's a bit of a head fuck.

我对这次演讲感到非常恐慌和害怕，不仅仅是因为要在公众面前讲话——虽然这也是原因之一。更重要的是，我希望能说一些有意义的话，而我被当前事态的巨大压力压得喘不过气。然而，还有一系列特殊情况让我感到困惑和否定。三年前，当我最后一次站在这个舞台上之后，我陷入了一场长达三年的法律纠纷，最后闹到伦敦高等法院。在那时，我感觉自己就像是被审判，因为我的职业生涯、名誉、财务，甚至我的家都岌岌可危。而这一切只因为我在这里警告你们，我认为民主很难在你们正在构建的技术下存活，不管这项技术多么了不起。事实上，差点没能活下去的人是我，而我当时警告的几乎所有事情现在都在变为现实。无法掩饰的是，这一切让我有点不知所措。

I have a lot of emotions about coming here and Ted also I suspect is feeling them too. But what actually I finally realised yesterday is that the denial and the confusion that I've been feeling is maybe what you're feeling too. I felt powerless for a really long time. So if that's what you're feeling I get it. But we have to act now. My alarm system is ringing again. There are things that we can do. In my case I survived and you will too but it's by learning how to fight back. This is my guide and it has to start with naming it. It's a coup. I know you probably don't want to hear that and especially here but we can't fight it if we can't see it and we can't see it if we don't name it.

我对来到这里有很多情绪，我怀疑泰德也有同样的感受。但我昨天最终意识到，我一直感受到的否认和困惑，也许正是你们也在经历的。我已经感到无能为力很长时间了，所以如果你也有这种感觉，我能理解。但我们现在必须行动。我的警报系统再次响起。我们可以有所作为。在我看来，我幸存下来，你也会，但必须学会反击。这是我的指南，必须从命名开始。这是一场政变。我知道你可能不想听到这个，尤其是在这里，但如果我们看不见它，就无法对抗，如果不对其命名，就无法看清它。

The Russian and American presidents are now speaking the same words. They are telling the same lies. We are watching the collapse of the international order in real time and this is just the start. Coups are like concrete when they stop moving they set. It is already later than we think. This image, some of you in this room might know these people. I call it tech-brows in hostage situations. It's a message to you. This is Putin's playbook. He allows a business elite to make untold riches in exchange for absolute loyalty. Some people are calling this oligarchy but it's actually bigger than that. These are global platforms. It's broligarchy. There is an alignment of interests that runs from through Silicon Valley to what is now a coming autocracy. It's the type of power that the world has never seen before.

俄美两国总统现如今在说着同样的话，他们在讲述同样的谎言。我们正在实时目睹国际秩序的崩塌，而这仅仅是个开始。政变就像混凝土，一旦停止移动，就会凝固。事情的进展已经比我们想象的更晚了。这张图片，有些在座的人可能认识这些人。我称之为技术界人物身处人质情境。这也是给你们的信息。这是普京的策略：他允许商业精英们获取无法想象的财富，以换取绝对的忠诚。有些人称这种现象为寡头政治，但实际上它比这更大。这些是全球性的平台，我称之为“超级寡头政治”。这种利益的结合从硅谷延伸至即将出现的独裁政权。这是一种世界前所未见的权力。

It's always the data. It's the crack cocaine of Silicon Valley. The first thing Elon Musk did was send his cyber troops into the US treasury to get access to the data. That is not a coincidence. It's a hack. That data is now feeding AI's that are choosing who to replace. Sorry, eliminate fraud and waste. When we broke the Cambridge Analytica story about the harvesting 87 million people's Facebook data, people freaked out. Rightly. This is chicken feed compared to that. But it is the blueprint. It's always the data. Which is why it's so important that you start thinking about your private life. The broligarchy doesn't want you to have one.

数据一直是关键所在。这就像是硅谷的“可卡因”。埃隆·马斯克所做的第一件事就是派他的网络团队进入美国财政部获取数据的访问权限。这不是巧合，而是一种黑客行为。这些数据如今正在为人工智能提供养料，以决定取代谁。对不起，我们得消除欺诈和浪费。当我们爆出剑桥分析公司利用8,700万人的Facebook数据时，大家都震惊了，这是理所当然的。而这相比来说只是小巫见大巫，但它确实是个蓝图。数据永远是核心，这就是为什么你需要开始考虑你的私人生活。精英集团不希望你有自己的私人空间。

This is the old headquarters of the East German secret police. They kept detailed files and almost one in three of their citizens. That is nothing compared to what Google has on every single one of us and hundreds of other companies. The entire business model of Silicon Valley is surveillance. It harvests our data in order to sell us stuff. We are already living inside the architecture of totalitarianism. It may not have been deliberate. But we now have to start acting as if we live in East Germany. And Instagram is the starsy.

这曾是东德秘密警察的旧总部。他们对几乎每三个公民中的一个都建立了详细的档案。但这与谷歌对我们每个人掌握的信息相比不值一提，还有数百家其他公司也在收集我们的数据。硅谷的整个商业模式就是监控。他们收集我们的数据，以便向我们推销商品。我们已经身处一个如同极权主义的结构中。也许这并非有意为之，但我们现在不得不开始像生活在东德一样行事。而 Instagram 就像是秘密警察。

Politics is downstream from culture. So I actually learned this from somebody who I think of as one of the great philosophers of our age. Steve Bannon. He actually stole it from somebody else. But it's not politicians who have the power. He knows that. It's why he's a podcast bro these days. But culture now is just what's next on your phone. And that's AI. Culture is AI now. And forget the killer robots. If you want to know what the first great AI apocalypse is, we're already living it. It's total information collapse. And if you take one thing only away from this talk, its politics is technology now. And that's why everybody in this room you can't look away.

政治是文化的下游。所以，我其实是从我认为的当代伟大哲学家之一——史蒂夫·班农那里学到这一点的。不过他也是从别人那里借用来的。权力不在政治家手中，他对此很清楚。这也是为什么他现在只是个播客博主。但现在的文化，就是你手机上接下来出现的东西。而那就是人工智能。文化现在就是人工智能。别再想着那些杀手机器人了。如果你想知道第一次真正的人工智能“末日”是什么，那我们已经正在经历——信息的完全崩溃。如果从这次演讲中你只能记住一点，那就是政治现在就是技术。这也是为什么在场的每一个人都无法无动于衷。

It's why your CEOs have been taken captive and appraised it on TV like hostages. But you have a choice. So Trump, he calls the press the enemies of the people. And he probably doesn't even know that he's quoting Stalin. So what happened to me is a playbook. And it's now coming for all sorts of other people. It was actually a friend of this guy who came after me. It's Nigel Farage. It's a Brexit funder. I'm not going to go super into the details. But 2019, press freedom organizations called the lawsuit against me a slap. That means it's a strategic litigation against public participation. A really long-winded way of saying it's using law as a weapon to shut people up. Not just journalists, but other public people too. And it works.

这就是为什么你的CEO们被俘虏，并在电视上像人质一样被展示。但你有选择。所以特朗普称媒体为人民的敌人。他可能甚至不知道他引用了斯大林的话。所以我经历的事情是一个套路，现在它正转向其他各种人。当初一个追击我的人的朋友，其实是奈杰尔·法拉奇，一个脱欧资金提供者。我不会详细展开，但在2019年，新闻自由组织称针对我的诉讼为“SLAPP”（Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation），这意味着是战略诉讼针对公共参与。简单来说，就是利用法律作为武器来让人闭嘴。不仅仅是记者，还有其他公众人物。而且这一招很有效。

I just wanted to tell you about one aspect of the litigation which I found terrifying. And that was the data harvesting. There's this quote you may know. It's Cardinal Richler. If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them in which we'll hang him. In my case, the first forensic searches of my phone and laptop yielded 40,000 pieces of data. There's my messages, my emails, my voice memos, my personal life. The whole thing about this, the attack which came from me, it's really personal. Because the thing about this litigation isn't only one part of the playbook. There was also this massive online campaign of abuse, which is just day after day after day after day.

我只是想和你谈谈这场诉讼中让我感到恐惧的一个方面，那就是数据收集。你可能听过一句话，是由红衣主教黎塞留说的：“给我看最诚实的人写的六行字，我会在其中找到让他上绞刑架的东西。” 在我这种情况下，第一次对我手机和电脑的司法取证搜索就找到了四万条数据，包括我的消息、电子邮件、语音备忘录，以及我的个人生活。此次诉讼针对我的进攻非常私人化。因为这场诉讼并不仅仅是策略的一部分，还有大规模的网络暴力，每天都在持续。

Because my most unforgivable crime was reporting while female. It was a digital witch burning. And I believe that this man came after me personally. Not because the Guardian and not Ted. It's because I looked like the weakest link. But he was wrong. And 30,000 people rose up to support me. They contributed almost a million pounds to a legal defense fund. Because they saw a bully trying to crush me, and they would not let it stand. And it always makes me emotional when I think about that. I just heard somebody was saying the camera person, I don't know where they are, contributed. This whole talk is actually my gratitude towards everybody who did that.

因为我最不可原谅的罪过就是作为一个女性记者进行报道。这是一场数字化的猎巫行动。我相信这个人是在针对我个人，而不是针对《卫报》和Ted。他认为我是团队中最薄弱的一环。但他错了，有三万多人站出来支持我。他们为法律辩护基金捐助了将近一百万英镑。因为他们看到一个恶霸试图打击我，并不愿袖手旁观。每当我想到这件事，都会十分感动。我刚刚听说，有人说视频的拍摄者也捐款了，不知道他们在哪里。整场讲话实际上是我对所有支持过我的人的感谢。

But it's also why I know about what we have to do next. You know, trying to pursue news organizations and every day they're settling. These are big corporates with corporate interests. Not everybody can stand up to power, but there are people who are doing it. And we can support them. We have to have each other's backs right now, because we are the cavalry now. You know, this is really important to me, but I spoke to a UK liable lawyer before this talk. I want to say that there is an awful lot of facts set down in a high court judgment.

但这也是为什么我知道我们接下来该做什么。你知道，不断尝试追踪新闻机构，他们每天都在做出妥协。这些都是有着企业利益的大公司。不是每个人都能对抗权力，但确实有人在这样做。我们可以支持他们。我们现在必须互相支持，因为我们现在就是自己的骑兵。这对我来说非常重要，不过在这次谈话之前，我咨询了一位英国的诽谤律师。我想说的是，很多事实已经在高等法院的判决中得到了确认。

And we're actually taking the case now to the European Court of Human Rights, we're testing the UK on its laws around freedom of expression. So look after facts, you're missing when they've gone. This is way back machine, give them money. They're trying to preserve the internet as it's being deleted day by day. History is our best chance of getting out of this. You know, you probably know this phrase, do not obey in advance. That's Tim Snyder who's a historian of authoritarianism.

我们现在已经将这个案件提交给欧洲人权法院，我们正在检验英国在言论自由方面的法律。所以，请珍惜这些事实，不要等到它们消失了才意识到它们的重要性。 "Wayback Machine" 是一个组织，请支持他们，因为他们正在努力保存互联网上的信息，这些信息正逐渐被删除。历史是我们摆脱困境的最佳机会。你可能听过这句话："不要提前顺从。" 这句话是历史学家蒂姆·斯奈德说的，他专注于研究威权主义。

We now are in techno authoritarianism. We have to learn how to digitally disobey. That can be as simple as the drop down box. Don't accept the cookies. Don't give your real name. Downloads, signal, the encrypted messaging app. Don't bomb Yemen. Don't add the adipers of the Atlantic to your group chats. Don't experiment on children. You know social morals change. We don't send children down coal mines anymore. And in years to come, allowing your child to be data harvested from birth will be considered child abuse.

我们现在处于技术威权主义的时代。我们需要学习如何进行数字不服从。这可以像不选择下拉框那么简单。拒绝接受网站的cookies，不要提供真实姓名。可以下载Signal这款加密通讯应用。不要轰炸也门。不要在群聊中添加不相关的人员。不要对儿童进行试验。你知道社会道德会改变。我们不再把孩子送进煤矿工作。在未来的岁月中，让孩子从出生起就被数据采集会被视为虐待儿童。

You didn't know, but now you do. Privacy is power. And we have more of it than we think. I had this little epiphany yesterday in which I realized actually the moments when I felt most powerless were the moments I felt I was actually most powerful. It was because my journalism had impact. They want us to feel powerless. That's the plan. There is so much though that we can learn from people who've been through this before. Elecfe Navalny, the leader of the Russian opposition. He always talked about a beautiful Russia of the future. He painted a vision.

你之前不知道，但现在你知道了。隐私就是力量，而这种力量比我们以为的更多。昨天我突然有个顿悟，我意识到，其实我感觉最无力的时候正是我最有力量的时候。这是因为我的新闻报道产生了影响。他们想让我们觉得无能为力，这正是他们的计划。但是我们可以从那些经历过这些事情的人身上学到很多。俄罗斯反对派领袖阿列克谢·纳瓦尔尼就是这样的人。他总是谈论一个美好的未来俄罗斯，他描绘了一个愿景。

There is a beautiful internet of the future. Free from corporate capture and data tracking. We can build it. It is going to take a movement. But we can learn from movements that they have been before us. This is my colleagues and I on strike in December. Because my news organisation, the Guardian, decided to sell our corner of it, the Observer, the Sunday title. It was a battle we didn't need at this time. We didn't actually win. But you can't win every battle. But you definitely won't win if you don't fight.

未来有一个美丽的互联网世界。它不受公司控制，也没有数据追踪。我们可以建设这样一个世界。这需要一场运动。不过，我们可以从以前的运动中学习。这是我和我的同事在12月罢工的原因。因为我的新闻机构《卫报》决定出售《观察家报》，即周日刊。这场战斗在这时对我们来说并不必要。我们没有真正赢得这场战斗，但你不可能赢得每一场战斗。然而，如果你不去斗争，你肯定不会赢。

So I want to leave you with this. This is chatGPT writing a TED talk in the style of Carol Cadwaleda. And it is creepily plausible. But what it doesn't know, because AI is actually as dumb as a rock, is that I am going to turn to Sam Altman, who is coming here, a TED speaker, and say that this does not belong to you. ChatGPT has been trained on my IP, my labour, my personal data. And I did not consent. The Guardian has effectively got rid of it more than 100 journalists. We actually leave the building next week. And shortly afterwards, it signed a syndication deal with OpenAI. Or as I think of it, it married its rapist. But I do not consent.

所以我想这样结束。以下是ChatGPT写的一个TED演讲，风格模仿了Carol Cadwaladr，看起来有些让人毛骨悚然的真实。但它不知道的是，AI其实愚蠢得像块石头，我会转向Sam Altman（他是一位TED演讲者）并告诉他，这不属于你。ChatGPT是用我的知识产权、我的劳动和我的个人数据进行训练的，而我并未同意这样做。《卫报》的做法实际上是裁掉了超过100名记者。我们下周就要离开这个建筑。不久之后，他们就和OpenAI签订了一个联合发布协议。或者在我看来，就像是和施暴者结了婚。但我并不对此表示同意。

And while we still have copyright laws in my country, the UK government is trying to tear them up at the moment in order to suck up to Silicon Valley and Trump. But while we have them, use them. Because what is happening to my industry is happening to yours too. And it's more than theft. It's a violation. Data rights are human rights. In 2019, I came here and I called out the Gods of Silicon Valley. I was wrong. Sam Altman, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, you are not Gods. You are men and you are careless. You think that by allying yourself with an autocrat, you will be protected.

在我们国家（英国），尽管仍然有版权法，但英国政府目前正试图废除它们，以迎合硅谷和特朗普。不过，既然我们还有这些法律，就应该利用它们。因为我所在行业所发生的事情，也正在发生在你们的行业。这不仅仅是盗窃，而是一种侵犯。数据权利就是人权。2019年，我来到这里，对硅谷的“神明”进行了批评。那时我错了。山姆·阿尔特曼、马克·扎克伯格、埃隆·马斯克，你们不是神明。你们只是普通人，且行为鲁莽。你们以为依附于一个独裁者就能得到保护。

That's not how history works. It's not even how oligarchy works. This is Mikhail Kodakovsky. He was an oligarch until he was sent to Siberia to prison for ten years after Putin tired of him. You are sucking up to a tyrant who is trying to destroy the laws who made your business as possible. You are collaborators. You are complicit in a regime of fear and cruelty. But the rest of us, we all here, we have a choice. I chose to come back to Ted because I'm reclaiming my story, my words. We are not powerless. The 30,000 people who supported me proved that we are not powerless because we know who we are and we know what we stand for.

这不是历史运作的方式，甚至不是寡头政治的运作方式。这是米哈伊尔·科达科夫斯基，他曾是一个寡头，直到普京对他失去兴趣，他被送往西伯利亚监禁十年。你们在迎合一个试图摧毁成就你们事业的法律的暴君。你们是合作者，是恐惧和残酷政权的同谋。但我们其他人，我们在场的所有人，都有选择。我选择回到Ted，因为我要重新掌控自己的故事和言论。我们并非无能为力。支持我的三万人证明了我们并非无能为力，因为我们了解自己，知道所坚持的是什么。

And my question to Silicon Valley is, do you? Thank you. Thank you.

请问硅谷，你们明白吗？谢谢。谢谢。