2022/11/24 by Chen, Xiang, Xie, Jiamu, Wang, Zixin +2
#Applications (stat.AP) #Computers and Society (cs.CY) #FOS: Computer and information sciences #Social and Information Networks (cs.SI)
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2211.13748
Censorship, anti-censorship, and self-censorship in an authoritarian regime have been extensively studies, yet the relationship between these intertwined factors is not well understood. In this paper, we report results of a large-scale survey study (N = 526) with Sina Weibo users toward bridging this research gap. Through descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and regression analysis, we uncover how users are being censored, how and why they conduct self-censorship on different topics and in different scenarios (i.e., post, repost, and comment), and their various anti-censorship strategies. We further identify the metrics of censorship and self-censorship, find the influence factors, and construct a mediation model to measure their relationship. Based on these findings, we discuss implications for democratic social media design and future censorship research.