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How Censorship in China Allows Government Criticism But Silences Collective Expression

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors proposed a system to locate, download, and analyze the content of millions of social media posts originating from nearly 1,400 different social media services all over China before the Chinese government is able to find, evaluate, and censor the large subset they deem objectionable.
Abstract: We offer the first large scale, multiple source analysis of the outcome of what may be the most extensive effort to selectively censor human expression ever implemented. To do this, we have devised a system to locate, download, and analyze the content of millions of social media posts originating from nearly 1,400 different social media services all over China before the Chinese government is able to find, evaluate, and censor (i.e., remove from the Internet) the large subset they deem objectionable. Using modern computer-assisted text analytic methods that we adapt and validate in the Chinese language, we compare the substantive content of posts censored to those not censored over time in each of 95 issue areas. Contrary to previous understandings, posts with negative, even vitriolic, criticism of the state, its leaders, and its policies are not more likely to be censored. Instead, we show that the censorship program is aimed at curtailing collection action by silencing comments that represent, reinforce, or spur social mobilization, regardless of content. Censorship is oriented toward attempting to forestall collective activities that are occurring now or may occur in the future --- and, as such, seem to clearly expose government intent, such as examples we offer where sharp increases in censorship presage government action outside the Internet.
Citations
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01 Jan 1906

578 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors of 50c party posts vociferously argue for the government's side in political and policy debates are identified and analyzed, and the authors show that most of these posts involve cheerleading for China, the revolutionary history of the Communist Party, or other symbols of the regime.
Abstract: The Chinese government has long been suspected of hiring as many as 2 million people to surreptitiously insert huge numbers of pseudonymous and other deceptive writings into the stream of real social media posts, as if they were the genuine opinions of ordinary people. Many academics, and most journalists and activists, claim that these so-called 50c party posts vociferously argue for the government’s side in political and policy debates. As we show, this is also true of most posts openly accused on social media of being 50c. Yet almost no systematic empirical evidence exists for this claim or, more importantly, for the Chinese regime’s strategic objective in pursuing this activity. In the first large-scale empirical analysis of this operation, we show how to identify the secretive authors of these posts, the posts written by them, and their content. We estimate that the government fabricates and posts about 448 million social media comments a year. In contrast to prior claims, we show that the Chinese regime’s strategy is to avoid arguing with skeptics of the party and the government, and to not even discuss controversial issues. We show that the goal of this massive secretive operation is instead to distract the public and change the subject, as most of these posts involve cheerleading for China, the revolutionary history of the Communist Party, or other symbols of the regime. We discuss how these results fit with what is known about the Chinese censorship program and suggest how they may change our broader theoretical understanding of “common knowledge” and information control in authoritarian regimes.

572 citations


Cites background or methods or result from "How Censorship in China Allows Gove..."

  • ...Our rules followed the principle articulated in footnote 20 of King et al. (2014) of trying to avoid influencing the system that we were studying, which has the added advantage of reducing the chance for bias....

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  • ...We first explain these results by generalizing prior findings on (human) censorship and (automated) filtering, all led by the same propaganda department in the same government as the 50c party (King et al. 2013, 2014)....

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  • ...Data and information necessary to replicate the results in this article appear in King et al. (2017). appearing....

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  • ...As of December 2012, netizens were posting approximately 100 million messages a day, or 36.5 billion a year, on Sina Weibo alone (Zhao et al. 2014), which is one of at least 1,382 known social media sites (King et al. 2013)....

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  • ...2014), which is one of at least 1,382 known social media sites (King et al. 2013). In our data, the ratio of Sina Weibo posts to all posts is 1.85, meaning that an estimate of the total number of posts on all platforms is (1.85 × 36.5 billion =) 67.5 billion. However, this requires the strong assumption that 50c party members use specific commercial social media platforms in the same proportions as the entire user population. We therefore used the detailed survey from iiMedia Research Group (2014) and calculated the ratio of total posts to Sina Weibo posts to be 2....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors provide an overview of the current state of the literature on the relationship between social media; political polarization; and political "disinformation", a term used to encompass a wide range of types of information about politics found online.
Abstract: The following report is intended to provide an overview of the current state of the literature on the relationship between social media; political polarization; and political “disinformation,” a term used to encompass a wide range of types of information about politics found online, including “fake news,” rumors, deliberately factually incorrect information, inadvertently factually incorrect information, politically slanted information, and “hyperpartisan” news. The review of the literature is provided in six separate sections, each of which can be read individually but that cumulatively are intended to provide an overview of what is known — and unknown — about the relationship between social media, political polarization, and disinformation. The report concludes by identifying key gaps in our understanding of these phenomena and the data that are needed to address them.

494 citations


Cites methods from "How Censorship in China Allows Gove..."

  • ...We begin with selective censorship, which involves removing some content from online platforms, while leaving other forms content alone; King et al. (2013) document this type of activity using Chinese data....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Analysis of the online popularity of Italian political leaders and the voting intention of French Internet users in both the 2012 presidential ballot and the subsequent legislative election shows a remarkable ability for social media to forecast electoral results, as well as a noteworthy correlation between social media and the results of traditional mass surveys.
Abstract: The growing usage of social media by a wider audience of citizens sharply increases the possibility of investigating the web as a device to explore and track political preferences. In the present paper we apply a method recently proposed by other social scientists to three different scenarios, by analyzing on one side the online popularity of Italian political leaders throughout 2011, and on the other the voting intention of French Internet users in both the 2012 presidential ballot and the subsequent legislative election. While Internet users are not necessarily representative of the whole population of a country’s citizens, our analysis shows a remarkable ability for social media to forecast electoral results, as well as a noteworthy correlation between social media and the results of traditional mass surveys. We also illustrate that the predictive ability of social media analysis strengthens as the number of citizens expressing their opinion online increases, provided that the citizens act consistently...

426 citations


Cites background from "How Censorship in China Allows Gove..."

  • ...Note, however, that the Internet ceases to be a free environment for political debate whenever users are confronted with censorship, such as occurs in authoritarian regimes (King et al., 2012)....

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References
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Book
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TL;DR: This paper presents the results of a two-year study of the statistical treatment of outliers in the context of one-Dimensional Location and its applications to discrete-time reinforcement learning.
Abstract: 1. Introduction. 2. Simple Regression. 3. Multiple Regression. 4. The Special Case of One-Dimensional Location. 5. Algorithms. 6. Outlier Diagnostics. 7. Related Statistical Techniques. References. Table of Data Sets. Index.

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"How Censorship in China Allows Gove..." refers methods in this paper

  • ...We think of each of the 85 topic areas as a six month time series of daily volume and detect bursts using the weights calculated from robust regression techniques to identify outlying observations from the rest of the time series (Huber, 1964; Rousseeuw and Leroy, 1987)....

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01 Jan 1993
TL;DR: The seasons change; and both of us lose our harvests for want of mutual confidence and security as discussed by the authors... I will not, therefore, take any pains upon your account; and should I labour with you upon my own account, in expectation of a return, I know I should be disappointed, and that I should in vain depend upon your gratitude.
Abstract: Your corn is ripe today; mine will be so tomorrow. ‘Tis profitable for us both, that I should labour with you today, and that you should aid me tomorrow. I have no kindness for you, and know you have as little for me. I will not, therefore, take any pains upon your account; and should I labour with you upon my own account, in expectation of a return, I know I should be disappointed, and that I should in vain depend upon your gratitude. Here then I leave you to labour alone; You treat me in the same manner. The seasons change; and both of us lose our harvests for want of mutual confidence and security.

4,368 citations

01 Jan 1980

3,652 citations


"How Censorship in China Allows Gove..." refers methods in this paper

  • ...We think of each of the 85 topic areas as a six month time series of daily volume and detect bursts using the weights calculated from robust regression techniques to identify outlying observations from the rest of the time series (Huber, 1964; Rousseeuw and Leroy, 1987)....

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MonographDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss the relationship between political regimes and economic growth in the United States and discuss the dynamics of political regimes, economic growth, political instability, and population.
Abstract: Introduction 1. Democracies and dictatorships 2. Dynamic of political regimes 3. Political regimes and economic growth 4. Political instability and economic growth 5. Political regimes and population Conclusion.

3,391 citations


"How Censorship in China Allows Gove..." refers background in this paper

  • ...Protests in East Germany, Eastern Europe, and most recently the Middle East have all preceded regime change (Ash, 2002; Lohmann, 1994; Przeworski et al., 2000)....

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