Read on Twitter
the first day when trump's account was banned a small number of analysts and self-proclaimed overseas chinese democracy fighters equate twitter's move to 'chinese-style censorship.'
china experts like @dwertime @tony_zy @Rover829 etc have alr called out this bad take & pointed out china's media censorship no way resembles what's going on in the state rn. thought with so many tweets clarifying this intrinsic difference folks'd make better judgment. im wrong.
don't have much to add except sharing past research, leaked doc, reports that show some v important characteristics of so-called chinese style censorship.
platforms operating in chn must comply w/ gov directives; failure to do so = fine/loss of biz license. unlike content moderation targeting hate speech etc, censorship on chn social media is primarily there to protect the interest of the ruling party. https://ojs.library.queensu.ca/index.php/surveillance-and-society/article/view/china_lexicon
the pressure on companies to ensure content stay within the party line is so high (and yet instructions so vague & arbitrary) that co often end up censoring not just criticism but also neutral refs to govt officials and party policies as per @citizenlab https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/china-quarterly/article/intermingling-of-state-and-private-companies-analysing-censorship-of-the-19th-national-communist-party-congress-on-wechat/9D63E906590D2E388C29DCED5D7E62FE
users who dare challenge a leader's authority is either censored or outright arrested (as opposed to, you know, leaders themselves getting cancelled). @shenlulushen wrote an excellent piece on account banning / zhahao of state critics on weibo https://restofworld.org/2020/weibo-bombing/
a 19-year-old was questioned by police for building a tool that allowed internet users to reconnect w/ friends whose social media accs had been deleted. it happened around the time when xi removed term limits for presidency https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/china-steps-up-internet-censorship-of-criticism-of-xi-jinping/article38269470/
it takes less than a second to find criticism of trump on twitter or even on weibo/wechat. but hey, making jokes or coded names of top chinese leaders on chn platforms? nope thank you. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/28/world/asia/china-censorship-xi-jinping.html
the control of messages surrounding top leaders is so pervasive that even if you look like the leader, you'll attract the censors' attention. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/29/world/asia/china-xi-jinping-opera-lookalike.html
meanwhile, contrasting their swift reactions to anything considered remotely sensitive to the party (5 mins ~ 24 hrs), chinese social media companies are unreasonably slow in moderating hate speech, racism, extreme nationalist remarks on their platforms. https://www.usenix.org/system/files/conference/usenixsecurity13/sec13-paper_zhu.pdf
i listed some examples of weibo's failures to control violence-inciting and racist speech during the pandemic. https://www.eastasiaforum.org/2020/11/04/chinese-style-censorship-is-no-fix-for-the-covid-19-infodemic/
i have not yet gone into the state's ability to mobilized platforms to "guide public opinion" and amplify sate-approved narratives of anything ranging from discussions of govt policies to public health crises. https://www.globalasia.org/v9no2/cover/anti-social-media-how-chinas-censors-stay-one-step-ahead-of-freedom_david-bandurski
there's a lot more to unpack re moderation of politicians' speech on social media (e.g., whether moderation policy is clearly defined & consistently enforced etc), lazily (or intentionally) label it as chinese style censorship is ignorance & simply muddying the water.
