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More than plain text: Censorship deletion in the Chinese social media

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  • Jun Liu
  • Jingyi Zhao

Abstract

Although the Internet allows people to circulate messages using different media, most censorship studies discuss the removal of text content. This article presents a systematic study regarding the censorship of both plain text and multimedia content on the Chinese Internet. By analyzing both censored and surviving posts on the Chinese social media platform Weibo during the 2014 Hong Kong Umbrella Movement, we find that multimedia posts suffered more intensive censorship deletion than plain text posts, with censorship programs being oriented more toward multimedia content like images than the text content of multimedia posts. Our analysis has significant implications for censorship studies, information control, and politics in the “post‐text” era.

Suggested Citation

  • Jun Liu & Jingyi Zhao, 2021. "More than plain text: Censorship deletion in the Chinese social media," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 72(1), pages 18-31, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jinfst:v:72:y:2021:i:1:p:18-31
    DOI: 10.1002/asi.24390
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. King, Gary & Pan, Jennifer & Roberts, Margaret E., 2017. "How the Chinese Government Fabricates Social Media Posts for Strategic Distraction, Not Engaged Argument," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 111(3), pages 484-501, August.
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    3. Peter Lorentzen, 2014. "China's Strategic Censorship," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 58(2), pages 402-414, April.
    4. Hobbs, William R. & Roberts, Margaret E., 2018. "How Sudden Censorship Can Increase Access to Information," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 112(3), pages 621-636, August.
    5. Bei Qin & David Strömberg & Yanhui Wu, 2017. "Why Does China Allow Freer Social Media? Protests versus Surveillance and Propaganda," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 31(1), pages 117-140, Winter.
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