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　　In the aftermath of dramatic events like Monday's bombing attack at the Boston Marathon, it's a truth of our times that millions of people will get early bits of news via social media。在类似波士顿爆炸案这样的重大突发事件之后，数百万人会通过社交媒体获得早期报道，这是我们时代的事实。

　　To be sure, sites like Twitter and Facebook were used extensively by police, relief groups and governments to share important information about the bombings. But there's also a more unfortunate side to how the Web responds to sudden bad news。诚然，警方、救援团体、政府在分享有关爆炸的重要信息方面大量使用twitter和facebook这样的社交网站，但网络在应对突发坏消息方面还有更不幸的一面。

　　Sometimes accidentally and sometimes maliciously, false information gets loose. And in the rapid-fire digital echo chamber, it doesn't take long to spread。有些出于无心，有些则是故意，假消息不断涌现，而在当今时代，这些不实信息会迅速扩散传播。

　　"On days like this, Twitter shows its best & worst: loads of info at huge speed, but often false & sometimes deliberately so," said Mark Blank-Settle, of the BBC College of Journalism, in a post on the site。“在发生这样重大事件的日子，推特展现了它最好和最坏的一面：信息得以快速传播，但经常有假消息还是故意散播开的”，BBC新闻学院的马克在网上一篇报道中这样说道。

　　As always, news discovered online (or anywhere else, really) should be double-checked before it's passed along -- especially in times of tragedy。同平时一样，在传播网上以及任何其他途径得来的消息之前应当进行核实，尤其是在这样的悲剧时刻。

　　Here are some of the most widely shared untrue news items we've found on social media in the past 24 hours。以下是CNN在过去24小时内在社交网站上发现的有关波士顿爆炸案传播得最广的一些不实新闻。

　　Man planned to propose, girlfriend killed男子计划终点线求婚，女朋友却被炸死

　　Among the many gripping images to emerge from the bombing's aftermath was one of a man in a red shirt, kneeling on the ground cradling a woman in his arms. It went viral -- with a heartbreaking, but fake, story attached。爆炸案发生后出现了众多引人注意的照片，其中有一张拍的是，一名穿红色衬衣的男子跪在地上，手臂抱着一名女性。这张图片迅速传开，但是人们给它加上了一个令人心碎却不实的故事。

　　"The man in the red shirt planned to propose to his girlfriend as he crossed the finish line of the Boston Marathon, but she passed away" it reads. "Most of us will never experience this amount of emotional pain."“穿红色衬衣的男子计划在跨过波士顿马拉松比赛终点线后向女朋友求婚，但她却过世了”，故事写道，“我们中的大多数人永远不会体会到那样深重的情感痛苦。”

　　The image is, in fact, real. It comes from the Boston Globe and was shared through Getty Images. But the agency's caption merely describes the scene as a man comforting an injured woman at the finish line。实际上，图片是真实的，来自《波士顿环球报》，通过盖蒂图片社分享到网络上。但图片社的图片说明只是称：那是一名男子在终点线安慰一名受伤女子。

　　That didn't stop it from making the rounds in a big way. A somewhat misleading Facebook account pretending to represent actor Will Ferrell (it calls itself a "parody" but has 385,000 likes) shared the post. By Tuesday morning, the picture had more than 448,000 "likes" and had been shared over 92,000 times。这个事实并没有阻止“求婚”说法大量传播。一个冒充好莱坞演员威尔·法瑞尔的Facebook账号转发了这张图片(该账号自称是恶搞，却有385000个“赞”)。至周二早上，这张图片已有448,000个“赞”，被分享超过92,000次。

　　Young girl died at finish line小女孩在终点线遇难

　　Another heart-wrenching image of a supposed victim went viral. In this one, a young girl running in a road race is pictured, with text saying she died in one of the blasts. As an added cruel twist, the post says she was "running for the Sandy Hook victims."另一张据称是受害者的图片也在网上大量传播，这张照片令人心碎。照片中一名小女孩在跑步，文字描述称她死于波士顿爆炸案的其中一起爆炸中，甚至还称，她是为了去年底的桑迪胡克校园枪击案遇难者而参加波士顿马拉松的。那次枪击案导致20名小学生死亡，在美国全国掀起控枪大讨论。

　　But a quick look at the photo shows that her runner's bib is from the Joe Cassella 5K in Great Falls, Virginia. Also, the Boston Marathon does not allow runners that young。但仔细看看照片就可以发现，她的胸牌上写着，她参加的是弗吉尼亚州大瀑布城的乔-卡塞拉5公里跑。此外，据悉波士顿马拉松并不允许这么小的选手参赛。

　　On Google+, one of the users who shared the image followed it with "poor little girl..got killed in boston。。)：" By Tuesday, it had more than 500 comments and had become a "What's Hot" post on the site -- appearing in the feeds of all users who haven't turned off that feature。一名用户在Google+分享这张图片，加上了文字描述：“可怜的小女孩，在波士顿遇难”。至16日，它已有500个评论，入选热门贴子，并出现在所用订阅用户的推送中。

　　On Tuesday, organizers of that race shot down the tale on their Facebook account. "We would like to clarify that the picture circulating on the web and Twitter of a little girl wearing a Joe Cassella 5K bib claiming to have been killed at the Boston marathon is being used fraudulently," read the page for the Joe Cassella Foundation. The group raises funds for the families of children who are ill in the Washington area.4月16日，乔-卡塞拉基金会也出面辟谣：“我们想澄清一下，在网络和Twitter上传播的一张戴着乔-卡塞拉5公里跑胸牌的女孩跑步的图片被错误使用。” 该慈善组织为在华盛顿地区生病孩子的家庭筹集款项。

　　Race organizers will donate for retweets波士顿马拉松组织方将为转发捐款

　　A Twitter account sprouted up under the handle @_BostonMarathon. Posing as the organizers of the race, whoever is behind the account tweeted: "For every retweet we receive we will donate $1 to the #BostonMarathon victims #PrayForBoston."@_BostonMarathon是仿冒波士顿马拉松组织方的假账号(正牌账号是@BostonMarathon，没有下划线)，这个假账号称：“每转发此推文一次，我们将向波士顿马拉松炸弹袭击案件的受害者捐助1美元。”

　　By Monday evening, the post had been retweeted more than 50,000 times. It was, of course, fake. And to its credit, Twitter disabled the account soon afterward。至15日晚，这条推文已被转发了5万多次。当然这是假的。Twitter官方也很快就封了那个帐户。

　　It wasn't the only Twitter phony. Another widely talked-about account, @Hope4Boston, shared both the image of the 8-year-old girl who supposedly died and a photo of a young boy, running in a race, who was another supposed victim。另一个用户@Hope4Boston，分享了据称在爆炸案中遇难的8岁女孩和另一张据称也是在爆炸案中遇难的小男孩参加比赛的图片。

　　Eight-year-old Martin Richard was one of three confirmed fatalities as of Tuesday morning. But he was watching the race, not running in it.8岁的马丁·理查德是三名已证实的爆炸案死者之一，但他当时是在观看马拉松比赛，而不是参加比赛。

　　The "Hope for Boston" account was created on March 24, according to the Web tool When Did You Join Twitter? But account holders are able to change their handles and names on the site。根据网络工具“你何时加入twitter” 显示，@Hope4Boston是3月24日建立的，但是帐户持有人可以更名。

　　Authorities shut down cell phone service政府关闭了移动电话服务

　　Reports flew around social media, mainly Twitter, on Monday that police in Boston had shut down cellular networks to prevent an attacker from using a cell phone to detonate another explosive. At least one media report quoted an unnamed source with information to that effect, before later recanting。网上还流传这样的消息：15日当天波士顿警方关闭了移动网络以防止袭击者用手机来引爆另一个爆炸物。至少有一个媒体使用“匿名消息人士”说法报道这个信息，但媒体随后又撤回报道。

　　In truth, Boston's wireless network was simply overwhelmed with the volume of calls and other communications in the aftermath of the attack. Service was slow and spotty, but never shut down. Verizon and other mobile carriers confirmed they'd never been contacted by officials asking them to shut off service。真相是：波士顿无线网络只是由于袭击事件发生后巨大的通话量和其它通讯而承受了非常大的压力，服务很慢而且时有时无，但从未关闭过。Verizon和其它手机运营商证实，政府官员们从未就关闭服务联络过他们。

　　Soon after the bombings, mobile carriers were beefing up their networks in the Boston area. AT&T made its Wi-Fi system publicly available for free to help take the load off traditional phone lines。在爆炸发生后不久，移动运营商在波士顿地区加强了他们的网络。AT&T免费开通了它的Wi-Fi系统，以帮助缓解传统电话线的流量。

　　Conspiracy theories阴谋说

　　We almost hate to even address this stuff. We'll start with a bottom line: Anyone saying they know what happened at this point is making it up。我们非常不想讨论这方面的内容，先从最基本的开始：现在说知道真相的人都是在编造谎言。

　　But that didn't stop far-fetched imaginings, often based in political ideology, from flying almost immediately after the attack。但这并没有阻止牵强的想像在袭击事件发生后就立刻传播，而且经常是以政治意识形态为基础的。

　　At least one Web user was ready for this. He registered a website -- bostonmarathonconspiracy.com -- on Monday. Clicking the link reveals a white page with black text reading:"I bought this domain to keep some conspiracy theory kook from owning it. Please keep the victims of this event and their families in your thoughts. Thank you."至少有一名网民已为此作好了准备，他周一注册了bostonmarathonconspiracy.com的域名(波士顿马拉松阴谋论)。这个网站没有任何设计，只有一行黑体字：“我购买这一域名是为了阻止一些阴谋论者拥有它。请想想这个爆炸案的受害者和他们的家人。谢谢你。”

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