New Study Finds Revealing Patterns in Chinese Internet Censorship

Instead of simply censoring topics critical of the government or that make China look bad, the study finds, the country’s human censors specifically target posts that could lead to protests or other forms of collective action, leaving ample room for China’s web users to criticize its government [..].  

“This is an enormous program. Hundreds of thousands of people are involved to help the government keep secrets…and the interesting paradox is an enormous program like that, designed to keep people from seeing things, actually exposes itself,” Mr. King said in an interview. “An elephant leaves big footprints.” [..]

“Negative posts do not accidentally slip through a leaky or imperfect system,” the paper notes. “The evidence indicates that the censors have no intention of stopping them, instead they are focused on removing posts that have collective action potential, regardless of whether or not they cast the Chinese leadership and their policies in a favorable light.” [..]

The average Chinese netizen can use clever wordplay and wit to skirt these first two mechanisms, Mr. King says [..]