COVID-19 increased censorship circumvention and access to sensitive topics in China | Zendy

Keng-Chi Chang | Zendy; William Hobbs | Zendy; Margaret E. Roberts | Zendy; ZACHARY STEINERT-THRELKELD | Zendy

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COVID-19 increased censorship circumvention and access to sensitive topics in China

Author(s) -

Keng-Chi Chang,

William Hobbs,

Margaret E. Roberts,

ZACHARY STEINERT-THRELKELD

Publication year - 2022

Publication title -

proceedings of the national academy of sciences

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 , gateway (web page) , covid-19 , political science , trace (psycholinguistics) , corporate governance , internet privacy , freedom of the press , political economy , public relations , business , sociology , law , democracy , politics , computer science , virology , world wide web , medicine , linguistics , philosophy , disease , pathology , infectious disease (medical specialty) , finance , outbreak

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.

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