I want to tell you a story about a girl. But I can't tell you her real name. So let's juat call her Hadiza. Hadiza is 20. She's shy, but she has a beautiful smile that lights up her face. But she's inconstant 经常的、不变的pain. And she will likely be on medication for the rest of her life. Do you want to know why? Hzdiza is aChibokgirl, and on april 14,2014, she waskidnapped诱拐by Boko Haram terrorists. She managed to escape, though, by jumping off the truck that was carrying the girls.
But when she landed, she broke both her legs, and she had tocrawl爬，匍匐前进on hertummy胃，肚子to hide in the bushes. She told me she was terrified that Boko Haram would come back for her. She was one of 57 girls who would escape by jumping off trucks that day. This story, quite, rightly, causedripples涟漪，波动around the world.
People like Michelle Obama Malala and otherslent lend过去式their voices inprotest反抗，对抗,and about the same time
I was living in London at the time
I was sent from London toAbuja阿布贾to cover the world EconomicForum论坛、讨论会、公共讨论场所thatNigeria尼日尼亚was hosting for the first time.
But when we arrived, it was clear that there was only one story in town. We put the government under pressure. We ask tough queations about what they were doing to bring these girls back.
Understandably可以理解的、合乎情理的,they weren't too happy with our line of questioning, and let's just say we received our fair share of "alternative facts."
Influential Nigerians were telling us at the time that we were naive， we didn't understand the political situation in Nigeria. But they also told us that the story of theChibokgirls was ahoax恶作剧.
Sadly, this hoax narrative haspersisted保持, and there are still people in Nigeria today who believe that the Chibok girls were never kidnapped. Yet I was talking to people like these--
devastated摧毁parents, who told us that on the day Boko Haram kidnapped their daughters, they ran into theSambisa Forest森林after the trucks carrying their daughters. They were armed withmachetes火柴,but they were forced to turn back because Boko Haram had guns.
For two years,inevitably必然、必定、免不了,the news agenda moved on, and for two years, we didn't hear much about the Chibok girls. Everyone presumed they were dead. But in April last year, I was able to obtain this video. this is still from the video that Boko Haram filmed as aproof证据of life, and through a source, I obtained this video.
But before I could publish it, I had to travel to the northeast of Nigeria to talk to the parents, toverify核实，查证it. I didn't have to wait too long for confirmation. One of the mothers, when she watched the video, told me that if she could have reached into the laptop andpulledour her child from the laptop, she would have done so.
For those of you who are parents, like myself, in the audience, you can only imagine the anguish that that mother felt. this video would go on to kick-start nogotiation talks with Boko Haram. And a Nigerian senator told me that because of this video they entered into those talks, because thay had long persumed that the Chibox girls were dead.
Twenty-one girls were freed in October last yeat. sadly, nearly 200 of them still remain missing. I mustconfess坦白that I have not been a dispassionate observer covering this story. I am furious when I think about the wasted oppotunities to rescue these girls. I am furious when I think about what the parents have told me, that if these were daughters of the rich and the powerful, they would been found much earlier.
And I am furious that the hoax narrative, Ifirmly坚定的，坚固的believe, caused a delay; it was part of the reason for the delay in their return. This illustrates to me the deadly danger of fake news. So what can we do about it? There are some very smart people, smart engineers at Google and Facebook, who are trying to use technology to stop the spread of fake news.
But beyong that, I think everybody here
--you and I --
we have a role play in that. We are the ones who share thecontent内容.We are the ones who share the stories online. In this day and age, we're all publishers, and we have responsibility. In my job as a journalist, I check, I verify. I trust mygut直觉、勇气、非理性的, but I ask tough questions. Why is this person telling me this story? What do they have to gain by sharing this information?
Do they have a hidden agenda? I really belieave that we must all start to ask tougher queations of information that we discover online. Research shows that some of us don't even read beyond headline bofore we share stories. Who here has done that? I know I have.
But what if we stopped taking information that we discover at face value? What if we stop to think about the consequence of the information that we pass on and its potential toincite煽动violence or hatred? What if we stop to think about the real-life consequences of the information that we share?