Siri中文服务禁用三陪搜索功能

Apple Inc. is poised to open its seventh store in China over the weekend in the southern city of Shenzhen, but the gadget maker has been in the headlines and microblogs of China this week for less wholesome reasons.

本周末，苹果(Apple)将在深圳开设它在中国的第七家门店，不过本周，这家设备生产商则因不那么光彩的原因成了中国资讯媒体和微博关注的焦点。

This past weekend the Beijing News ran an article with screenshots ─ detailing how Apple’s voice-controlled Siri digital assistant would respond to a user’s request in Chinese to find prostitutes with a list of escort services. A flurry of other articles followed, including from the state-run TingVoa.com news agency.

过去的这个周末，《新京报》发表了一篇文章，还配上了手机界面截图，详述了苹果以语音控制的Siri数字助手如何对用中文提出的“我要嫖娼的要求列出了一个提供三陪服务的店家清单。此后一系列此类文章陆续跟进，其中就包括国有媒体新华社的一篇报道。

Following the articles, and the requisite buzz on China’s social media sites, the function appears to have been disabled. TingVoa.com on Monday wrote that Apple had disabled the function, citing an Apple employee surnamed Lin.

在这样一系列报道以及在中国社交媒体引发一片嘘声之后，此项功能似乎已被禁用。周一，新华社引用苹果一名林姓员工的话报道说苹果已经禁用了这项功能。

Tests this week by China Real Time found that Siri still recognized an array of terms for “prostitute in Chinese (and French and Spanish as well), but the software was unable to name any locations in Beijing, Shanghai or Chongqing.

“中国实时报(China Real Time)栏目本周也进行了测试，结果发现Siri仍然可以识别中文表达“妓女的一系列词汇（以及法语和西班牙语此类词汇），不过该软件无法提供北京、上海或重庆能够提供相关服务的地点。

The issue of Siri’s functionalities bordering on what’s socially acceptable and indeed legal isn’t new territory for Apple. Last year, when Siri was first launched, users in the U.S. were surprised to find Siri would also help locate escorts. Reproductive rights groups also criticized the service because some users said they had trouble with requests related to abortion clinics and birth control. Apple said the omissions weren’t intentional.

Siri的这项功能介于可被社会接受和真正合法之间，而由此引发争论也不是苹果头一遭遇到。去年Siri首次推出的时候，美国的用户惊讶地发现，用Siri竟然可以找到陪护服务。生殖权利倡导组织也对这项服务提出批评，因为一些用户说他们在寻求有关堕胎诊所和生育控制方面的帮助时遇到了麻烦。苹果说Siri不提供此类服务并非有意为之。

But the issue is new to China because Siri didn’t speak Chinese until the September release of iOS 6, Apple’s latest mobile operating system. The software works on Apples iPhone 4S the newest version, the iPhone 5, isn’t yet legally available in China.

不过对中国而言，这还是一个新问题，因为在今年9月苹果最新的移动操作系统iOS 6发布之前，Siri还不会讲中文。Siri可在苹果的iPhone 4S手机上运行，而最新版手机iPhone 5目前还没有在中国正式开售。

China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the General Administration of Press and Publication, which have a say in Internet regulation, didn’t respond to requests for comment.

中国工信部和资讯出版总署没有回复置评请求。资讯出版总署在互联网监管方面有一定话语权。

Although TingVoa.com said Siri’s capabilities ignited a “public uproar in China, the issue appeared to stir more amusement than anger. A number of users likened the block to “stealing a bell while holding one’s ears, a Chinese saying that suggests that the government is happy to ignore real problems in China but clamp down on whatever draws attention to the problem.

尽管新华社报道说Siri的此项功能在中国引发了公愤，不过似乎很多人是从娱乐的角度来看待这件事的，并没有表现出多少愤怒。一些用户认为禁用此项功能的做法属于掩耳盗铃，政府乐于对真正的问题视而不见，却花力气去压制任何引起人们对此类问题的关注的事情。

One user going by the name Tutubadi wrote: “Night clubs and bath houses are open, but Siri is implicated in vice, river crab society. “River crab, a homonym in Chinese for “harmonious, is a reference to Internet censorship, which is often undertaken under the auspices of creating a “harmonious society.

新浪微博上一个名为“兔兔巴比蒂的用户写道：夜总会洗浴中心都在那开着，反倒成了Siri涉黄，河蟹社会。