文胸致癌與機器人取代人類成微信敏感話題大綱
To the list of things that should not be uttered in modern China, add these: Padded bras cause cancer. The earth is on the brink of falling into a period of darkness for six days. Robots will soon conquer entire industries and eliminate the need for human labor.
在今天的中國，不可公開討論之事的清單上又多了幾樣：帶襯墊的文胸致癌。地球即將進入六日黑暗期。機器人很快就要在所有產業大行其道，取代所有人類勞動力。
These were among the seemingly trivial posts on WeChat, a popular messaging app, that have been censored, according to a study by the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab.
多倫多大學(University of Toronto)“公民實驗室”(Citizen Lab)的研究顯示，包括上述內容在內，一些看起來頗爲瑣碎的微信帖子已經受到審查。微信是一款廣受歡迎的聊天應用。
Censorship in China is a well-known phenomenon, with bureaucrats working assiduously to augment the stature of leaders and restrict discussion of topics deemed controversial, such as Tibet and Taiwan. But the Toronto researchers found that these faithful guardians of the Communist Party line have turned their attention to more mundane matters, devoting time and server strength to preventing rumors, fabricated news reports and superstitious premonitions from going viral.
審查在中國是人盡皆知的現象，官僚們兢兢業業地從事相關工作，以便提升領導人的形象，並壓制對西藏、臺灣問題等當局眼中敏感話題的討論。但多倫多大學的研究人員發現，共產黨的官方意見的這羣忠誠衛士，已經把注意力轉移到更爲世俗的事情上，會花大量時間和服務器的力量，來防範謠言、虛假新聞報道以及帶有迷信色彩的預言的廣泛傳播。
“Online rumors can be viewed as a kind of social protest by citizens skeptical of official news,” explained Jason Q. Ng, one of the Toronto researchers.
“可以把網絡謠言看作對官方新聞持懷疑態度的公民發起的一種社會抗議，”多倫多大學的研究人員之一傑森·Q·吳(Jason Q. Ng)解釋道。
WeChat is a mobile chat application with 762 million monthly users, that allows public postings, similar to Facebook. One recent study showed that Chinese people spend an average of 40 minutes per day using WeChat.
微信這款月活躍用戶數爲7.62億的移動聊天應用，像Facebook一樣允許公開發帖。最近的一項研究顯示，中國人平均每天花40分鐘刷微信。
The University of Toronto study examined 36,000 posts that had been shared publicly on third-party websites over nine months between 2014- and 2015. The posts were not selected at random; the researchers made a point of monitoring several dozen users who had a history of sharing what the Chinese deemed sensitive content.
多倫多大學的研究對2014至2015年間的9個月裏被公開分享到第三方網站上的3.6萬個帖子進行了追蹤。這些帖子不是隨機挑選出來的；研究人員專門監控數十名分享過中國人眼中的敏感信息的微信用戶。
About four percent of those studied were censored, including musings on the safety of drinking water in China; speculation that several celebrities were on the verge of death; and supposition that Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, was undergoing secret medical treatment in China.
研究人員追蹤的這些帖子，約有4%受到了審查，其中包括關於中國飲用水安全的討論、對幾個名人處於死亡邊緣的揣測，以及對朝鮮領導人金正恩(Kim Jong-un)正在中國接受祕密治療的猜想。
Zhao Yulian, 36, a technology entrepreneur, was thwarted when she recently tried to share an article about tips to avoid getting cancer. “At some point,” she said, “you have to ask, why is this sensitive information?”
不久前， 36歲的科技創業者趙玉蓮（音）試圖分享一篇關於如何避免患上癌症的文章，卻沒能成功。“在某個時刻，”她說，“你禁不住要問，這爲什麼是敏感信息？”
