昨天（11月14日），美联社发表题为“False reports claim election servers were seized in Germany”的文章，指出所谓“美军在德国扣押大选服务器”的传闻是假消息。现摘译如下：

有人声称：美军突袭了西班牙的选举软件公司Skytl在德国法兰克福的办公室，并且扣押了存有美国大选舞弊证据的服务器。

美联社评价：假消息。美国军方和Skytl告诉美联社：这一传闻不真实。Skytl在法兰克福并无办公室或服务器。

事实：星期六，社交媒体用户开始分享保守派网站发出的报道。这些报道指出：驻德国美军没收了可能揭示美国大选舞弊的服务器。多数传言说，这些服务器属于总部位于巴萨罗那的软件公司Skytl。还有人说：这些服务器藏有Dominion Voting System的数据。

这些假消息是在德克萨斯共和党众议员Louie Gohmert的一个Zoom 讲话后开始传播的。Gohmert声称，“美国武装力量”已经扣押了Skytl在法兰克福办公室中的服务器。

在这篇社交媒体广泛分享的讲话中，Gohmert承认有关这次“突袭”的信息只是来自德国的一个德文推文，并说“我也不知是真是假。”

英文原文如下：

False reports claim election servers were seized in Germany
By JUDE JOFFE-BLOCKNovember 14, 2020 GMT


CLAIM: The U.S. Army raided the Frankfurt office of the Spanish election software company Scytl to seize servers that had evidence of voting irregularities in the Nov. 3 U.S. election.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. Both the Army and Scytl told The Associated Press the claim is not true. Furthermore, Scytl does not have offices or servers in Frankfurt, Germany.

THE FACTS: Social media users Saturday were sharing reports published by conservative websites claiming servers that would reveal wrongdoing in the U.S. election had been confiscated by U.S. military forces in Germany. Most posts said the servers belong to the software company Scytl, which is based in Barcelona, and some suggested the servers housed information from Dominion Voting Systems.

The false claims followed a Zoom call this week that featured Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert, of Texas, suggesting that “U.S. Army forces” had seized servers from a Frankfurt office of the software company Scytl.

In his remarks, which were widely shared on social media, Gohmert acknowledged that the information about the alleged raid only came from a “German tweet in German,” and had said, “I don’t know the truth.”

The Associated Press reached out to Gohmert’s spokesperson but did not hear back.
In his recorded remarks, Gohmert said he had heard from “former intel people” that Scytl maintained data that could be “gleaned” to prove Republican votes had been changed to Democrat in the Nov. 3 election.

But, according to the company, Scytl does not tally votes. Nor is there credible evidence Republican votes were changed to Democratic votes in the election.
George Papadopoulos, a former Trump campaign adviser who pleaded guilty in special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe, tweeted on Friday afternoon: “Breaking: Congressman Louie Ghomert has stated that The U.S. Army has seized servers for Dominion in Germany.”

When asked by The Associated Press if the Army had engaged in an operation to recover servers in Germany, an Army spokesperson responded Saturday, “Those allegations are false.”

Scytl also refuted the claim. As the false conspiracy spread online, the company released a statement Friday titled, “Fact Checking Regarding US Elections: Debunking Fake News.”

In the statement Scytl said: “We do not have servers or offices in Frankfurt” and “The US army has not seized anything from Scytl in Barcelona, Frankfurt or anywhere else.” It also says Scytl does not “tabulate, tally or count votes in the US.”
Jonathan Brill, the president and general manager for Scytl’s U.S. division told the AP, “Scytl products sold to US customers are fully housed in the US, utilizing Amazon Web Services and have never been housed in Germany.”

The company provided four election-related products to city, county and state clients for the Nov. 3 U.S. election, including an interface to train election workers, online tools to educate voters, an online platform for voters to request absentee ballots and an online platform to display real-time election results tabulated by local election officials.

Scytl and Dominion do not have ties to one another, according to statements from both companies.

“There is no truth whatsoever to the claims,” a Dominion spokesperson wrote in an email when asked if the company stored data on servers in Germany and if it was aware of a U.S. military operation to seize those servers.

The claim is the latest in a series of false information that has circulated about Dominion Voting Systems since the election, including the meritless theory that the company’s voting machines deleted or switched Trump votes.

There is no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election. In fact, election officials from both political parties have stated publicly that the election went well and international observers confirmed there were no serious irregularities.

链接：https://apnews.com/article/fact-checking-9754011363

附注：这个谣言还在被一些华人媒体和“自媒体”传播，例如：https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG2m-pn4JBc