Does the Great Fire Wall cause self-censorship? The effects of perceived internet regulation and the justification of regulation
Does the Great Fire Wall cause self-censorship? The effects of perceived internet regulation and the justification of regulation
复制标题
防火长城会导致自我审查吗？
作者：
Zhi;Tongchen Wang;Minting Huang
目的
本文旨在考察以“长城”为代表的网络审查对中国网民自我审查的影响。
设计/方法/方式
设计3×2析因试验（n=315）。不同的审查模式（软审查，比较审查，和硬审查）和互联网监管的理由是在实验中涉及的两个因素。因变量是自我审查，通过谈论敏感问题的意愿和拒绝签署真实姓名的请愿书的行为来衡量。
结果
结果表明，感知到的互联网审查显着降低了谈论敏感问题的意愿和签署真实姓名请愿书的可能性。审查正当化显著降低了对请愿签名行为的自我审查。尽管中国网民可能会遇到不同的互联网审查模式，但它们在引起不同程度的自我审查方面并无差异。
研究限制/影响
研究对象是90年代初出生的大学生，这一代人的特点可能会影响实验结果。自我审查的衡量标准可以改进。
独创性/价值
这项研究为有关互联网监管的文献做出了贡献，因为它确定了政府的互联网审查制度与普通人对威权政权监管的反应之间的因果关系。通过对不同的审查模式和自我审查的不同维度的解读，可以看出审查和被审查的复杂性。
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of internet censorship, which is represented by the Great Fire Wall, on Chinese internet users’ self-censorship.
Design/methodology/approach
A 3×2 factorial experiment (n=315) is designed. Different patterns of censorship (soft censorship, compared censorship, and hard censorship) and the justification of internet regulation are involved in the experiment as two factors. The dependent variable is self-censorship which is measured through the willingness to speak about sensitive issues and the behavior of refusing to sign petitions with true names.
Findings
The results show that perceived internet censorship significantly decreases the willingness to talk about sensitive issues and the likelihood of signing petitions with true names. The justification of censorship significantly decreases self-censorship on the behaviors of petition signing. Although there are different patterns of internet censorship that Chinese netizens may encounter, they do not differ from each other in causing different levels of self-censorship.
Research limitations/implications
The subjects are college students who were born in the early 1990s, and the characteristics of this generation may influence the results of the experiment. The measurement of self-censorship could be refined.
Originality/value
The study contributes to the body of literature about internet regulation because it identifies a causal relationship between the government’s internet censorship system and ordinary people’s reaction to the regulation in an authoritarian regime. Unpacking different patterns of censorship and different dimensions of self-censorship depicts the complexity of censoring and being censored.