Delegated Censorship: The Dynamic, Layered, and Multistage Information Control Regime in China

IF 4.1 2区社会学 Q1 POLITICAL SCIENCE

Politics & Society Pub Date : 2021-05-06 DOI:10.1177/00323292211013181

Taiyi Sun, Quansheng Zhao

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引用次数: 11

Abstract

How does internet censorship work in China, and how does it reflect the Chinese state’s logic of governing society? An online political publication, Global China (海外看世界), was created by the authors, and the pattern and record of articles being censored was analyzed. Using results from A/B tests on the articles and interviews with relevant officials, the article shows that the state employs delegated censorship, outsourcing significant responsibility to private internet companies and applying levels of scrutiny based on timing, targets, and stage of publication. The dynamic, layered, multistage censorship regime creates significant variation and flexibility across the Chinese internet, most often in decisions about what to censor. This approach aims to maintain regime stability and legitimacy while minimizing costs. Rather than blocking all information and players, the state recognizes its technical and bureaucratic limits but also realizes the benefits of a degree of toleration. Delegated censorship utilizes both power control and power sharing and offers a new understanding of authoritarian state-society relations.

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委托审查：中国动态、分层、多阶段的信息控制制度

互联网审查在中国是如何运作的，它如何反映中国政府治理社会的逻辑？在线政治出版物《环球中国》(海外看世界), 由作者创建，并分析了文章被审查的模式和记录。文章利用文章的A/B测试结果和对相关官员的采访表明，国家采用了授权审查制度，将重大责任外包给私营互联网公司，并根据发布的时间、目标和阶段实施审查。动态、分层、多阶段的审查制度在中国互联网上创造了巨大的变化和灵活性，最常见的是在审查内容的决定上。这种方法旨在维护政权的稳定和合法性，同时最大限度地降低成本。国家没有屏蔽所有信息和参与者，而是承认其技术和官僚限制，但也意识到一定程度的宽容带来的好处。委托审查利用了权力控制和权力分享，并对威权国家与社会关系提供了新的理解。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Politics & Society Multiple-

CiteScore

5.00

自引率

4.20%

发文量

期刊介绍： Politics & Society is a peer-reviewed journal. All submitted papers are read by a rotating editorial board member. If a paper is deemed potentially publishable, it is sent to another board member, who, if agreeing that it is potentially publishable, sends it to a third board member. If and only if all three agree, the paper is sent to the entire editorial board for consideration at board meetings. The editorial board meets three times a year, and the board members who are present (usually between 9 and 14) make decisions through a deliberative process that also considers written reports from absent members. Unlike many journals which rely on 1–3 individual blind referee reports and a single editor with final say, the peers who decide whether to accept submitted work are thus the full editorial board of the journal, comprised of scholars from various disciplines, who discuss papers openly, with author names known, at meetings. Editors are required to disclose potential conflicts of interest when evaluating manuscripts and to recuse themselves from voting if such a potential exists.