[(Title)] Massive Study Finds Facebook Linked to Higher Rate of Hate Crimes in Germany.

A robust statistical analysis by social science researchers has found strong links between anti-refugee violence and Facebook usage in Germany.

社会科学研究人员进行的一项有力的统计分析表明，德国反难民暴力和使用Facebook之间存在着密切的联系。

The study, authored by PhD candidates at the University of Warwick, has been available in draft form since early this year.

这项研究由华威大学的博士候选人撰写，自今年年初以来一直以草稿形式提供。

It was updated on Tuesday and highlighted by The New York Times in a report focusing on Facebook's influence in Altena, a German town with above-average levels of anti-refugee violence.

该报告在周二更新，《纽约时报》在报告中着重强调了Facebook对德国小镇阿尔特纳的影响，这里的反难民暴力水平高于平均水平。

The study examined more than 3,000 anti-refugee incidents in Germany between 2015 and 2017, including arsons and assaults. It analyzed the communities around the attacks, measuring variables such as income levels, size, and concentration of refugees.

这项研究调查了2015年至2017年期间德国发生的3000多起反难民事件，包括纵火和袭击，分析了袭击事件周围的社区，测量了其收入水平、社区规模和难民集中度等变量。

It found that, after controlling for such variables, higher-than-average Facebook use consistently and strongly corresponded with higher levels of anti-refugee violence.

调查发现，在控制这些变量之后，反难民暴力程度更高的地方，Facebook的使用率也更高。

Some of the study's individual findings document correlations without necessarily implying that Facebook usage causes hate crimes.

虽然这项研究的一些调查结果显示了相关性，但这不一定意味着使用Facebook会导致犯罪。

In a portion of their analysis tracking anti-refugee content shared on the social network to violent incidents, for instance, the authors write that their findings could reflect Facebook users reacting to violence, rather than the other way around.

例如，在跟踪社交网络上的反难民内容与暴力事件的关系的分析中，作者写道，他们的研究结果只反映Facebook用户对暴力的反应，而不能反映其他。

But the study used other approaches to pin down Facebook's role as a driver of violence.

但该研究采用其他方法降低了Facebook对暴力的驱动作用。

The researchers found that localized severe disruptions in internet access—cutting residents of a locality off from Facebook—eliminated the correlation between Facebook use and hate crimes.

研究人员发现，互联网接入严重切断（切断了居民和Facebook的连接）消除了Facebook和犯罪之间的关联。

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The Times report on Altena fleshes out those findings.

《纽约时报》对阿尔特纳的报告详细说明了这些发现。

In one incident shared by the manager of a refugee integration center there, a Facebook page set up to solicit food donation for Afghan and Syrian refugees was deluged with angry, anti-refugee rhetoric.

难民综合中心的管理人员分享了一个事件，说为阿富汗和叙利亚难民募捐粮食的Facebook网页因愤怒的反难民言论而垮掉。

That's despite what the Times describes as  "overwhelmingly tolerant social norms"  in the town, suggesting that Facebook serves to concentrate and amplify attitudes that, without it, would remain marginalized.

尽管《纽约时报》称该市为“绝大多数人都很宽容的社会典范”，但Facebook会集中并放大那些没有Facebook仍将被边缘化的言论。

The most extreme and persistent voices on a platform like Facebook, meanwhile, have outsized influence. The resulting sense that hateful attitudes are more widespread than they may actually be, in turn, encourages actual violence.

与此同时，Facebook这样的平台上最极端、最持久的声音产生了巨大的影响，由此产生的仇恨感要高于实际，反过来又助长了现实中的暴力。

In Altena, a trainee firefighter was radicalized online and attempted to burn down refugee housing.

在阿尔特纳，一名受训消防员在网上被激化，试图烧毁难民住房。

The issue is particularly salient in Germany, where treatment of refugees from Middle Eastern conflicts has created growing political rifts.

这个问题在德国尤为突出，因为如何对待中东难民造成了日益严重的政治分歧。

As the study points out, Germany's far-right, anti-immigration party, Alternative for Germany (AfD), has more Facebook followers than any other German political party.

正如该研究所指出的，德国极右翼反移民党（AlternativeforGermany，AfD）的Facebook追随者多于其他任何德国政党。

In addition, the study found strong correlations between anti-refugee posts to AfD's Facebook page and anti-refugee incidents in the real world.

Facebook has also been implicated in waves of ethnic violence in Myanmar and Sri Lanka.

Facebook还卷入了缅甸和斯里兰卡的种族暴力浪潮。

The company has often seemed slow to respond to requests from local governments to rein in users propagating hateful ideas, including misleading or false claims about crimes committed by members of marginalized groups.

对于地方政府要求限制用户传播仇恨思想的要求，包括对边缘群体所犯罪行的误导或虚假指控，Facebook往往反应迟缓。

Facebook has, however, recently stepped up efforts to remove hate speech on the platform.

不过，Facebook最近正加紧努力，消除平台上的仇恨言论。

Facebook declined to comment on the new study to the Times and has not yet responded to Fortune's request for comment.