COVID-19 increased censorship circumvention and access to sensitive topics in China-Reference-Cited by-同舟云学术

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

Published:2022-01-19 Issue:4 Volume:119 Page:
ISSN:0027-8424
Container-title:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
language:en
Short-container-title:Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

Author:

Chang Keng-Chi¹^ORCID,Hobbs William R.²³^ORCID,Roberts Margaret E.¹⁴^ORCID,Steinert-Threlkeld Zachary C.⁵⁶^ORCID

Affiliation:

1. Department of Political Science, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093

2. Department of Psychology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14850

3. Department of Government, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14850

4. Halicioğlu Data Science Institute, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093

5. Department of Political Science, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095

6. Department of Public Policy, Luskin School of Public Affairs, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095

Abstract

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.

Funder

National Science Foundation

Publisher

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Subject

Multidisciplinary

Link

https://pnas.org/doi/pdf/10.1073/pnas.2102818119

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