澄清众多网络传言

   切丽•布莱尔并未与穆阿迈尔•卡扎菲上校的儿子出席同一个狩猎聚会。IMG未就代理英国F1赛车手刘易斯•汉密尔顿展开任何磋商。而且与外界普遍共识相反，迈克尔•凯恩从未说过“没多少人知道这点”。

    谁会在乎这些呢？当然，谣言的主角在乎。现在一位名叫邓永锵爵士的企业家已给他们搭建了一个平台，希望能以正视听。当然，这不是免费的。

    生于香港、今年56岁的邓永锵爵士创办的新网站iCorrect使得社会名流、企业以及任何处于媒体关注焦点的人士有机会对关于他们的不实传言进行澄清和反驳。网站内容可免费阅读，但网站所谓的个人“澄清者”需支付年费1,000美元，才能发布无限量的“更正”信息。企业的年费更高，达5,000美元。

    切丽•布莱尔、IMG以及迈克尔•凯恩只是邓永锵说服成为其网站创始会员的部分知名人士和企业。同时身为英国《金融时报》(Financial Times)专栏作家的邓永锵表示，他曾向50位社会名流、政客、学者以及企业发出邀请，有30多位积极响应。近一年来他们在iCorrect上免费发布更正信息，为上个月网站的推出做好了准备。

    事实上，邓永锵迄今未收到任何澄清者的付款，他的商业模式确切来讲仍有待验证。“我提出收费1,000美元，是因为如果请一个诉状律师起草一份律师函，也要这么多钱！”他笑着说，“因此，我认为，如果我们一年向你收取这么多费用，已经很低了，你会感到物有所值。”

    因创办“上海滩”服饰连锁店[2006年已售予瑞士历峰集团(Richemont Group)]而闻名的邓永锵发现了解高层人士有好处。公众人物往往必须应对断章取义、误解歪曲等尴尬，而要让最初发布此类消息的媒体及时更正也很难。

    不过，令人奇怪的是iCorrect网站上30多位澄清者中有几位更正的是维基百科（Wikipedia）上一些错误的个人信息，虽然他们可以在维基百科上免费更正。其他人澄清了Twitter、Facebook上一些假冒账户发布的错误信息。

    这对于邓永锵是一个全新的领域。“我不上Twitter、Facebook及其他社交网站，但老实说，我很惊异于当下我们创造的网络空间，将来人们将从这里寻找历史，”邓永锵在近日的一次电话采访中解释道，“不同寻常的是网络空间中的大部分信息都是道听途说。”

    例如，汤米•希尔费格在iCorrect上表示，有关他不希望黑人穿他所设计服装的传言是“不实的”。但这真的是希尔费格在澄清吗？抑或另有其人，将来需要另一个澄清？“如果我们是称职的，我们必须要确认澄清者的真实身份，确保每个希望加入者都不是冒牌者，”邓永锵表示，“因此，可以通过引荐或推荐，如果你不认识我们，我们也不认识你，你可以请你的律师或经纪公司验明正身，我们也会核实。”

    但除了验明正身，iCorrect区区10人的团队中无人会去检查网站所发布“更正”信息的真实性。

    不管怎样，因慈善事业于2008年获得爵士封号的邓永锵对这项业务寄予厚望。上周他在美国进行推广，希望能吸引美国名流、商界人士以及其他希望消除传言的人。

    邓永锵特别希望能吸引像荷兰国际集团（ING）、英国切尔西足球俱乐部(English Chelsea Football Club)这样的机构和企业澄清者；ING和切尔西足球俱乐部都已在iCorrect网站发布更正信息。他甚至希望能说服像英国石油(BP)这样的大公司认识到iCorrect可能给自身带来的益处。

    邓永锵本人也使用这项网站服务，他发布的一条更正信息是网站最早的一批更正信息之一。英国《星期日邮报》(The Mail on Sunday)称，“邓永锵十分讨人厌。”邓永锵的更正信息：“此言太过夸张了”。知道了。

    FORTUNE -- Cherie Blair did not attend a shooting party with Col. Muammar el-Gaddafi's son. IMG has not had any discussions about representing British Formula One racing driver Lewis Hamilton. And contrary to popular belief, Michael Caine has never said, "Not many people know that."

    Wondering who cares? Well, the subjects of the rumors do. And now an entrepreneur by the name of Sir David Tang has given them a platform to set the record straight. For a fee, of course.

    Sir David, as he prefers to be called, is the Hong Kong-born, 56-year-old founder of a new website called iCorrect, which gives celebrities, corporations and anyone else under the media spotlight an opportunity to challenge and respond to rumors about them. While it is free to read, individual "correctors," as the site calls them, can write unlimited "corrections" by paying an annual $1,000 fee. Businesses have a steeper charge of $5,000 per year.

    Cherie Blair, IMG and Michael Caine are just a few of the well-known names Tang, who is also a Financial Times columnist, convinced to join the site as founding members. He says that more than 30 of the 50 celebrities, socialites, politicians, intellectuals and corporations he asked to join were amenable to it. They've been posting corrections free of charge for nearly a year, in preparation for the site's launch last month.

    In fact, Tang hasn't yet received payment from a single corrector, and his business model isn't exactly proven. "I came up with $1,000 dollars because that's how much it would cost you if you asked a solicitor to write a letter!" he says, laughing. "So I think if we charge you that for a year, it's a nominal sum and you'll get good value for money."

    Tang, who is most known for founding the Shanghai Tang clothing chain, which he sold to the Richemont Group in 2006, has found that it pays to know people in high places. People in the public eye often have to deal with being misquoted and misrepresented, and it can be difficult to get a timely correction made by the original news source.

    Curiously, several of the more than 30 correctors featured on the site spoke out against mistakes about them on Wikipedia, which they could edit for free. Others set the record straight on fake Twitter and Facebook accounts.

    This is all new territory for Tang. "I'm not on Twitter or Facebook or any of those social sites, but intellectually speaking, I am amazed that we have come to create a cyberspace in our modern age that will be where people look for history," Tang explained in a recent telephone interview. "The extraordinary thing is that the majority of information in that cyberspace is hearsay."

    For instance, Tommy Hilfiger says on iCorrect that the rumors that he does not want black people to wear his clothes are "untrue." But is it really Hilfiger making the correction or does one viral conspiracy beget another? "If we are worth our salt, we've got to make sure that people who are correcting are who they say they are, so I've got to be convinced that every person who wants to join, is who they say they are," Tang says. "So, either by way of introduction or referral, if you don't know us and we don't know you, you can ask your lawyer or your agent to verify and we will verify it."

    But that's as far as verification goes. No one on iCorrect's small team of 10 will be checking to see that the "corrections" posted on the site are actually accurate.

    Nonetheless, Tang, who was knighted in 2008 for his charity work, has high hopes for this business. He's bringing his pitch to the U.S. this week to lure American celebrities, businesspeople and anyone else who wants to quash any rumors.

    Tang is particularly keen to get more institutional and corporate correctors like ING and the English Chelsea Football Club, who have both posted corrections to the site. He wants to convince companies even as large as BP (BP) to see how they could benefit from iCorrect.

    And Tang has used the service himself, in one of the site's first entries. According to The Mail on Sunday, "David Tang is a creep." Tang's correction: "This is greatly exaggerated." Duly noted.