AARON ZAMOST2025年11月17日 Ben DenzerWhile working at YouTube in an era when a wedding dance and a 7-year-old hallucinating on dental anesthesia were top viral videos, I received the news that my employer had won a Peabody Award, which honors the most powerful storytelling achievements in electronic media. The committee praised YouTube as an “ever-expanding archive-cum-bulletin board that both embodies and promotes democracy.” Instead of displaying the statuette in the lobby with our other awards, I put it on my desk. I have no idea where it went after I left the company two years later.我在YouTube工作的那个年代，爆款视频还只是婚礼舞蹈和七岁小孩牙科麻醉后产生幻觉的片段，某天我收到消息，公司斩获了皮博迪奖——这一奖项旨在表彰电子媒体领域最具影响力的叙事成就。评审委员会称赞YouTube是“兼具档案库与公告栏功能、既体现又推动民主的平台”。我没有把奖杯和其他奖项一起摆在大厅，而是放在了自己的办公桌上。两年后我离职时，完全不知道它最终流落何方。It’s hard to square the idealistic YouTube of the late 2000s with the one that in September paid President Trump $24.5 million to settle a meritless lawsuit over his post-Jan. 6 account suspension.很难将2000年代末那个理想主义的YouTube与2024年9月的YouTube联系起来——后者为了结特朗普毫无依据的诉讼支付了2450万美元，该诉讼源于1月6日事件后对特朗普账号的封禁。Big Tech once fought the good fights. In 2007 Google forced the Federal Communications Commission to impose openness conditions on some of the country’s most valuable airwaves, paving the way for the mobile ecosystem we take for granted today. Twitter filed lawsuits to be able to publicly disclose how often government agencies requested user data. In 2016 Apple refused orders to help the F.B.I. unlock an iPhone, defending user privacy even under government pressure. These actions took place under presidents of both parties but shared a common goal — they put the needs of users ahead of the interests of those in power.曾几何时，科技巨头也为正义而战。2007年，谷歌迫使联邦通信委员会对美国最宝贵的无线电波段实施开放性条件，为我们如今习以为常的移动生态系统铺平了道路。Twitter为公开政府机构索取用户数据的频率而发起诉讼。2016年，苹果拒绝了协助联邦调查局解锁iPhone的命令，即便面临政府压力也坚决捍卫用户隐私。这些行动发生在不同党派总统执政期间，却有着共同的目标——将用户需求置于当权者利益之上。To paraphrase the venture capitalist Reid Hoffman, the Silicon Valley of the early 2010s was a mind-set, not a location. Its leaders saw themselves as revolutionaries: fighting for everyday people, resisting entrenched authority, all while creating technology that pushed society forward. And the products matched the posture — cellphones untethered from carriers, cars that didn’t run on gas, and pocket-size credit card readers that let anyone start a business.用风险投资家里德·霍夫曼的话来说，2010年代初的硅谷是一种心态，而不是一个地理位置。当时的硅谷领军者视自己为革命者：为普通人抗争、抵制根深蒂固的权威，同时创造推动社会进步的技术。他们的产品也与这种姿态相符——摆脱运营商束缚的手机、不依赖汽油的汽车，以及让任何人都能创业的便携信用卡读卡器。Fifteen years later, the revolutionaries are no longer storming the gates. They’re inside the castle, polishing the silverware.15年后，昔日的革命者不再猛攻城门，而是躲在城堡里擦拭着他们的银器。Meta is the most egregious example. It sprinted to announce that it was dismantling its fact-checking system before Mr. Trump returned to office, then loosened its hate-speech rules in the name of “mainstream discourse.” By the end of January, Meta had reached a deal with Mr. Trump, agreeing to pay $25 million to settle his lawsuit over being suspended from Facebook and Instagram in the wake of Jan. 6. All before Mr. Trump had spent 10 days back in office.Meta的表现最为恶劣。特朗普重返白宫前，它就火速宣布拆除事实核查系统，随后以“主流话语”为名放宽仇恨言论规则。到1月底，Meta与特朗普达成协议，同意支付2500万美元了结他因1月6日事件后Facebook和Instagram账号被封而提起的诉讼。而此时特朗普重返白宫还不到10天。The surrender is now routine. In April, Amazon publicly quashed reports that it would display the cost of Mr. Trump’s tariffs on product pages. Apple recently caved to pressure from Attorney General Pam Bondi and pulled an app that alerted users to nearby ICE agents. This is the same Apple whose chief executive, Tim Cook, in 2017 said, “Apple would not exist without immigration,” and quoted Martin Luther King Jr. in criticizing Mr. Trump’s Muslim ban.如今这种妥协已成常态。4月，亚马逊公开否认有关其将在产品页面显示特朗普关税成本的报道。苹果近期屈服于司法部长帕姆·邦迪的压力，下架了一款能提醒用户附近移民海关执法局探员位置的应用。同样是这家苹果公司，2017年时首席执行官蒂姆·库克曾表示，“没有移民就没有苹果，”并引用马丁·路德·金的话批评特朗普的穆斯林禁令。What happened?到底发生了什么？The answer is simple, if dispiriting: For tech companies, courage doesn’t scale.答案简单却令人沮丧：对科技公司而言，勇气无法随着规模的增长而增长。Google, Apple and their peers now act like the self-preservation-obsessed incumbents they once disrupted. They move slower, talk safer and patrol the moat. They’ve traded risk for complacency — too afraid of offending the president, losing access or inviting a subpoena. Big Tech now serves power before it serves its users.谷歌、苹果及其同行如今的行事作风已经成为自保至上的在位者，与它们曾经颠覆的东西如出一辙。它们行动更迟缓、言辞更谨慎，一心固守自己的优势地位。它们用自满取代了冒险精神——太过害怕冒犯总统、失去资源或招致传票。如今的科技巨头，先服务权力，再服务用户。When faith in government and Wall Street disappeared during the financial crisis, technology was the last industry standing — its leaders’ idealism mirrored the public’s confidence in it. But over time, as they grew more dominant, they put corporate self-interest ahead of customers, and they made their products worse. Tech now looks a lot like finance: power without accountability, and profit without purpose.金融危机期间，公众对政府和华尔街的信任崩塌，科技行业成为最后屹立的产业——其领军者的理想主义与公众对它的信心相呼应。但随着它们的主导地位日益巩固，逐渐将企业自身利益置于用户之上，产品质量也随之下降。如今的科技行业与金融业越来越像：责权失衡，逐利忘义。It’s easy to mock Silicon Valley’s “change the world” mantra (and many have), but public faith in technology matters. It encourages investment, increases adoption of and trust in new products, and attracts top talent to the United States. To put this in terms tech executives will understand: Trust is a feature, not a bug.硅谷“改变世界”的口号固然容易遭到嘲讽（也确实有很多人嘲讽），但公众对科技的信任至关重要。它能鼓励投资、提高新产品的接受度和信任度，还能吸引顶尖人才赴美。用科技高管能理解的话来说：信任是核心功能，而非系统缺陷。Optimism is a necessary part of tech’s business model — by abandoning their principles, these companies are eroding the good will they depend on for growth. Americans are already much more likely to think A.I. will harm them (43 percent) than help them (24 percent). This kind of skepticism, some of which predates this administration, can have real consequences. Nearly twice as many U.S. adults trust Google and Amazon over Meta, which is why hundreds of millions of people have bought Nest and Echo devices, but how many do you know who bought the now-discontinued Facebook Portal?乐观是科技商业模式的必要组成部分——这些公司放弃原则的行为，正在侵蚀它们赖以增长的社会善意。如今美国人认为人工智能会伤害自己的比例（43%），远高于认为人工智能会带来帮助的比例（24%）。这种怀疑情绪（其中一些在本届政府执政前就已存在）可能引发实实在在的后果。信任谷歌和亚马逊的美国成年人数量几乎是信任Meta的两倍，这也可以解释为什么数亿人购买了Nest和Echo设备，而你身边有多少人买过现已停产的Facebook Portal呢？Cynicism is also making the industry a less desirable place to work. Even before entry-level tech jobs became more scarce, top graduates were starting to lose interest in working at Big Tech companies. The number of tech industry companies on Glassdoor’s “Best Places to Work” list decreased by 25 percent from 2023 to 2024. Tech drives U.S. economic growth — we all need a tech industry that the public believes in.怀疑也让科技行业变得不那么令人向往。即便在入门级科技岗位变得稀缺之前，顶尖毕业生就已开始对入职科技巨头失去兴趣。2023年至2024年，Glassdoor的“最佳雇主”榜单中的科技公司数量下降了25%。科技行业是美国经济增长的驱动力——我们都需要一个能获得公众信任的科技行业。Major changes are coming whether we like it or not — to the economy, to culture, to how we live and work. This is not the time for faith in tech to be at such lows. Adoption depends on public trust, not just in the products themselves but also in the people and principles behind them. Unfortunately, the tech industry’s leaders have become its worst spokespeople. The problem isn’t their messaging. It’s their credibility.无论我们是否愿意，重大变革即将到来——涉及经济、文化，以及我们的生活和工作方式。此刻绝不应成为公众对科技信任度跌入谷底的时候。新技术的普及依赖公众信任，不仅是对产品本身的信任，更是对产品背后的人和原则的信任。不幸的是，科技行业的领导者们成了自己最糟糕的代言人。问题不在于他们的宣传话术，而在于他们的公信力。For years, Silicon Valley symbolized progress. Its retreat from its core values leaves no clear heir — no other industry fights for the future in the same way. When tech is the villain instead of the hero, the future feels leaderless. And a country that stops believing its innovators can make the world better stops believing in much else, too.多年来，硅谷一直是进步的象征。如今它背离了核心价值观，却没有留下任何明确的继承者——没有其他行业能以同样的方式为未来而战。当科技从英雄沦为反派，未来便显得群龙无首。而一个不再相信其创新者能让世界变得更好的国家，也将对其他事物丧失信心。I still wonder where the Peabody landed after I packed up my desk at YouTube. I hope whoever inherited the statuette understands what it meant to receive it. And maybe that person will remember the old YouTube — the one that was brave enough to earn it.我至今仍好奇，当年我在YouTube收拾办公桌时，那座皮博迪奖最终去了哪里。希望接手这座奖杯的人明白它的意义所在。或许那个人还会记得曾经的YouTube——那个曾经有勇气赢得这座奖杯的YouTube。Aaron Zamost是一名科技传播顾问，曾任Square的传播、政策和人事主管。加入Square之前，他曾在Google和YouTube从事传播工作。翻译：晋其角点击查看本文英文版。