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Despite being designed to go unnoticed, censorship apparatus would occasionally manifest itself under various circumstances. In this study, we formulate four layers of censorship exposure where individual users can come across censorship. We investigate how different layers of censorship exposure influence users' opinion expressions. Results show that people tend to stay silent when the censorship in the global environment is intensive, whereas they tend to "rebel" against censorship by voicing their opinions, when they experience censorship themselves or witness censorship occurring to their friends or reference persons. We also find community acts as a critical buffer against the influences of censorship. Outspoken crowd could shield individuals from the fear of punishment and outspoken friends could mitigate individuals' anger against censorship. In either case, individuals can be liberated from their overconcern with censorship and be empowered to act for themselves.

Chinese social media and big data represent an important share of the global Internet, but have received relatively less attention. This editorial examines three dominant discourses based on China's distinctive and complex political, economic and social realities: "Big Data" (technical focus), "Big Brother" (political focus), and "Big Profit" (economic focus). We argue that the prevailing discourse and practice of big data in China is largely technocentric, decontextualized and nonreflexive, and much less attuned to the social, political, cultural, epistemological, and ethical implications of big data that a humancentric approach would demand. Second, the authoritarian Chinese state poses incredible political challenges to big data research and practice. Third, the practice of Chinese social media and big data is imbued with a discourse of technological nationalism, driven by a handful of monopolistic "national champions." Despite contention, the state and market players have formed a largely mutually beneficial symbiotic relationship to maximize their political and economic gains. We argue a comparative perspective to foster a global conversation on social media and big data is necessary in order to formulate collective responses to such challenges.

It remains controversial whether community structures in social networks are beneficial or not for information diffusion. This study examined the relationships among four core concepts in social network analysis—network redundancy, information redundancy, ego-alter similarity, and tie strength—and their impacts on information diffusion. By using more than 6,500 representative ego networks containing nearly 1 million following relationships from Twitter, the current study found that (1) network redundancy is positively associated with the probability of being retweeted even when competing variables are controlled for; (2) network redundancy is positively associated with information redundancy, which in turn decreases the probability of being retweeted; and (3) the inclusion of both ego-alter similarity and tie strength can attenuate the impact of network redundancy on the probability of being retweeted.

A former reporter for state-owned broadcaster China Central Television, Chai Jing was fronting Under the Dome, a documentary that methodically explains the lethal hazards of microscopic, airborne soot in cities across China. She also spoke plainly about her concerns for her daughter's health. Especially moving was a video interview featuring a six-year-old girl's testimony to having never seen white clouds, stars, or blue skies. Here, Auer and Fu talk about Weibo censorship in China. Adapted from the source document.

AbstractThis study examines the association between Internet use and protest politics in South Korea and Taiwan, using secondary data from the sixth wave (2010–14) of the World Values Survey. The data show that Internet use is positively associated with low-cost protest acts, like signing a petition. Internet use is also correlated with the willingness to consider higher-cost actions such as attending demonstrations and joining in boycotts. But it does not appear to consistently increase actual protests of this sort. Discussion is made to address comparable opportunity structures for protest politics in the two East Asian democracies, where the Internet is deeply integrated into the country's political landscape.

Instead of focusing on the regime's control mechanism, this study identified a group of Chinese netizens who, despite being well aware of media censorship, posted on social media to commemorate the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre annually. Drawing on the concepts of ritualization and social signalling, 1,256 censored Sina Weibo posts published on June 1–4 between 2012 and 2018 were analysed and thematically classified into five categories: collective narratives and counter-discourse, remembrance, condemnation, citizen reporting, and response to current political suppression. The authors argued that tweeting and being censored have paradoxically become a ceremonial ritual for Chinese netizens. By posting serious, playful, and satirical messages, Chinese netizens send costly signals to express dissatisfaction toward the country's problems. (J Contemp China/GIGA)