Every rose has its thorn: Censorship and surveillance on social video platforms in China

Jeffrey Knockel; Masashi Crete-Nishihata; Jason Q. Ng; Adam Senft; Jedidiah R. Crandall

Every rose has its thorn: Censorship and surveillance on social video platforms in China

Jeffrey Knockel, Masashi Crete-Nishihata, Jason Q. Ng, Adam Senft, Jedidiah R. Crandall

Research output: Contribution to conference › Paper › peer-review

Abstract

Social media companies operating in China face a complex array of regulations and are liable for content posted to their platforms. Through reverse engineering we provide a view into how keyword censorship operates on four popular social video platforms in China: YY, 9158, Sina Show, and GuaGua. We also find keyword surveillance capabilities on YY. Our findings show inconsistencies in the implementation of censorship and the keyword lists used to trigger censorship events between the platforms we analyzed. We reveal a range of targeted content including criticism of the government and collective action. These results develop a deeper understanding of Chinese social media via comparative analysis across platforms, and provide evidence that there is no monolithic set of rules that govern how information controls are implemented in China.

Original language	English (US)
State	Published - 2015
Externally published	Yes
Event	5th USENIX Workshop on Free and Open Communications on the Internet, FOCI 2015, co-located with USENIX Security 2015 - Washington, United States Duration: Aug 10 2015 → …

Conference

Conference	5th USENIX Workshop on Free and Open Communications on the Internet, FOCI 2015, co-located with USENIX Security 2015
Country/Territory	United States
City	Washington
Period	8/10/15 → …

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Computer Networks and Communications
Software

Cite this

Every rose has its thorn: Censorship and surveillance on social video platforms in China. / Knockel, Jeffrey; Crete-Nishihata, Masashi; Ng, Jason Q. et al.
2015. Paper presented at 5th USENIX Workshop on Free and Open Communications on the Internet, FOCI 2015, co-located with USENIX Security 2015, Washington, United States.

Research output: Contribution to conference › Paper › peer-review

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abstract = "Social media companies operating in China face a complex array of regulations and are liable for content posted to their platforms. Through reverse engineering we provide a view into how keyword censorship operates on four popular social video platforms in China: YY, 9158, Sina Show, and GuaGua. We also find keyword surveillance capabilities on YY. Our findings show inconsistencies in the implementation of censorship and the keyword lists used to trigger censorship events between the platforms we analyzed. We reveal a range of targeted content including criticism of the government and collective action. These results develop a deeper understanding of Chinese social media via comparative analysis across platforms, and provide evidence that there is no monolithic set of rules that govern how information controls are implemented in China.",

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Every rose has its thorn: Censorship and surveillance on social video platforms in China

Abstract

Conference

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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