Open AccessCOVID-19 increased censorship circumvention and access to sensitive topics in China
Author(s) -
Keng-Chi Chang,
William R. Hobbs,
Margaret E. Roberts,
Zachary C. Steinert-Threlkeld
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
proceedings of the national academy of sciences of the united states of america
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.011
H-Index - 771
eISSN - 1091-6490
pISSN - 0027-8424
DOI - 10.1073/pnas.2102818119
Subject(s) - censorship , authoritarianism , china , government (linguistics) , politics , freedom of information , political science , covid-19 , internet privacy , negative information , democracy , freedom of the press , political economy , development economics , sociology , psychology , law , social psychology , economics , medicine , computer science , linguistics , philosophy , disease , pathology , infectious disease (medical specialty)
Significance We study the impact of crisis on information seeking in authoritarian regimes. Using digital trace data from China during the COVID-19 crisis, we show that crisis motivates citizens to seek out crisis-related information, which subsequently exposes them to unrelated and potentially regime-damaging information. This gateway to both current and historically sensitive content is not found for individuals in countries without extensive online censorship. While information seeking increases during crisis under all forms of governance, the added gateway to previously unknown and sensitive content is disproportionate in authoritarian contexts.