Margaret E. Roberts, an Associate Professor of Political Science at UC San Diego, explores the intricacies of censorship within China's Great Firewall. She identifies three types of censorship—fear, friction, and flooding—clarifying how they differentially affect elites and the general public. Roberts delves into the statistical analysis of Chinese social media, revealing how censorship shapes political behavior and engagement. She also addresses the paradox of censorship provoking curiosity and demands for transparency, highlighting its impact even in liberal democracies.
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insights INSIGHT
Three Mechanisms Of Modern Censorship
Censorship works through three mechanisms: fear, friction, and flooding, each with distinct effects on information access.
Friction and flooding let regimes control information without overtly banning content, reducing backlash and maintaining plausible deniability.
insights INSIGHT
Friction Works Because People Are Busy
Friction raises the time or money cost to find information so most people won't bother searching.
People need not notice friction for it to work, which makes it stealthy and effective at scale.
insights INSIGHT
Flooding Raises Verification Costs
Flooding injects competing content or noise to dilute or confuse factual information and raise verification costs.
Governments use bots and organized accounts to distract audiences or create misinformation at scale.
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She identifies 3 types of censorship: fear (threatening punishment to deter the spread or access of information); friction (increasing the time or money necessary to access information); and flooding (publishing information to distract, confuse, or dilute). Roberts shows how China customizes repression by using friction and flooding (censorship that is porous) to deter the majority of citizens whose busy schedules and general lack of interest in politics make it difficult to spend extra time and money accessing information. Highly motivated elites (e.g. journalists, activists) who are willing to spend the extra time and money to overcome the boundaries of both friction and flooding meanwhile may face fear and punishment. The two groups end up with very different information – complicating political coordination between the majority and elites.
Roberts’s highly accessible book negotiates two extreme positions (the internet will bring government accountability v. extreme censorship) to provide a more nuanced understanding of digital politics, the politics of repression, and political communication. Even if there is better information available, governments can create friction on distribution or flood the internet with propaganda. Looking at how China manages censorship provides insights not only for other authoritarian governments but also democratic governments. Liberal democracies might not use fear but they can affect access and availability – and they may find themselves (as the United States did in the 2016 presidential election) subject to flooding from external sources. The podcast includes Roberts’ insights on how the Chinese censored information on COVID-19 and the effect that had on the public.
Foreign Affairs named Censored one of its Best Books of 2018 and it was also honored with the Goldsmith Award and the Best Book in Human Rights Section and Information Technology and Politics section of the American Political Science Association.
New Books in East Asian Studies 
