Participatory censorship: How online fandom community facilitates authoritarian rule

Abstract

Following a burgeoning literature on private actors under digital authoritarianism, this study aims to understand the role played by social media users in sustaining authoritarian rule. It examines a subcultural community—the queer-fantasy community—on Chinese social media to expound how members of this community interpreted China’s censorship policy, interacted based on the interpretation, and participated in censorship. Integrating structural topic modeling and emergent coding, this study finds that a political environment of uncertainty fostered divergent imaginaries about censorship. These imaginaries encouraged participatory censorship within the online community, which strengthened the political control of the Internet in the absence of the state. This study illuminates how participatory censorship works, especially in non-professional and non-politically mobilized online communities. With a focus on social media users, it also offers a lens for future research to compare peer-based surveillance and content moderation in authoritarian and democratic contexts.

“We are snowflakes”: Minor transnationalism and the cultural resilience of slash fanfiction community in China

“…Fans’ discontent about the work quickly exaggerated to become discontent about the repository (i.e., AO3), and they organized a collective action to report AO3 to the Internet regulation department for disseminating pornography and obscene articles (传播淫秽物品罪). Rather than understanding this action as volunteer content moderation, the accusatory reporting of Xiao’s fans resembles what Luo & Li (2022) has found in Chinese fandom communities—pro-authoritarian ruling-out. Such an act is motivated by fans’ eagerness to protect their fandom object amid the high degree of uncertainty caused by censorship, in which accusatory reporting is used as a strategy to eliminate controversial elements.…”

“…And the uncertainty of censorship has triggered many fans to participate in accusatory reporting. In their study of an online discussion group of a danmei -adapted web series in production, Luo and Li (2022) found that pro-censorship accusatory reporting was used as a strategy to rule out potential risk factors of their fandom objects (e.g., anti-fans or negative comments, see also Yin, 2021). Such acts not only facilitate authoritarian hegemony over cultural practices but also reconfirm the national boundary of ideological control (Luo & Li, 2022).…”

Globalizing the sociology of the arts and culture: East Asian perspectives

“…And even during the administration of Park Geun-hye (2013-2017), artists on her "blacklist" were excluded from both state and private support (Kim 2018). Censorship in the Chinese context has drawn the most attention from scholars across disciplines (Roberts 2018;Luo and Li 2022;Chen 2022). The state regulates cultural production through various measures, shaping the content and form of cultural objects.…”

The BTS Effect: How K-Pop Fandoms Reshape Sociopolitical Messaging on Twitter

“…With the growth of social media and the internet, their roles in shaping cultural consumption and fostering fan communities is more important than ever (Sligh & Abidin, 2023;Baym, 2000;Luo & Li, 2022). Scholars have delved into how fandoms influence social identity formation, facilitate social activism, and impact media product consumption (Gray & Harrington, 2007;Jenkins, 2006;Baym, 2015;Abidin, 2018;Jenkins, Ford, & Green, 2013).…”