假新闻，假社交媒体账号，线上调查假受访者，还有假购票者。造假泛滥反映出一个趋势：程序造假泛滥。什么时候才能去伪存真，制止造假程序？
Fake news. Fake social media accounts. Fake online poll takers. Fake ticket buyers. And behind them all: The prolific fakery of botnets.
假新闻，假社交媒体账号，线上调查假受访者，还有假购票者。造假泛滥反映出一个趋势：程序造假泛滥。
When will we get real and stop them?
什么时候才能去伪存真，制止造假程序？
Malicious bots account for nearly 20% of all Internet traffic. These robotic computer scripts have been responsible for stealing content from commercial websites, shutting down websites, swaying advertising metrics, spamming forums, and snatching away Hamilton tickets for exorbitant resale.
造假程序几乎占互联网流量的20%。这些电脑程序窃取商业网站的内容，迫使一些网站关闭，影响收费广告指标的正常表现，在各种论坛灌水，还会抢购百老汇音乐剧《汉密尔顿》（Hamilton ）的票高价倒卖。
But revelations about Russian bots meddling in the U.S. election and a scorching New York Times investigation into the selling of fake Twitter followers and retweets vividly illustrate that the bot epidemic is even more severe than most people realized.
随着媒体曝光俄罗斯利用程序干涉美国总统大选，《纽约时报》推出有关Twitter僵尸粉丝交易和转发帖子的热门调查报道，事实已经生动地说明，造假程序比大多数人意识的严重。
And yet the bots march on, aided by a double whammy: murky laws governing their creation and sale, and social media companies that have too often turned a blind eye to the veracity of their reported user numbers.
然而造假程序仍在泛滥，主要由于两大因素：一是开发和销售程序的监管法律含糊不清，二是社交媒体公司对用户数量的真实性睁一只眼闭一只眼。
Tightening our defenses against malicious bots won’t be easy, but recent events show that the effort is warranted. Bots should be considered nothing less than a public enemy.
严厉打击造假程序并非易事，但新近一些实例显示行动已经开始。我们应该将造假程序视为社会公敌。
