Lecture 10: Censorship in the Digital Age Flashcards
Why do governments censor?
- information can be dangerous
- it can hold political actors accountable
- it can be used as a tool to facilitate coordination and collective action
What is the problem with censorship?
- it comes with a tradeoff between benefits and costs (dictators dilemma)
- backfires: lower economic growth, lower p, lower growth potential
Barbra Streisand Effect
any secrets that are being spread, its best not to hide them or it will backfire
Medias preferences
- similar to citizens
- distribute information that attracts most readers/viewers while involving little production cost
Citizens information Preferences
- benefits them at low cost
- highly elastic (small increase in price will lead to a string decrease in prob of consumption)
Definition of censorship
restriction of the public expression of or public access to information by authority
Mechanisms of Censorship
Fear, Friction, Flooding
Fear Mechanism
deterring the media and individuals from distributing or consuming
must be aware and credible threats
Paradox: because its visible, more likley to backfire
Friction Mechanism
acts as a tax on information, diverting the media
works w out punishmnet and is less observable therefore less backlash, also more porous and can be circumvented
Flooding Mechanism
vastly decreases the cost, creates distractions
even less visible
least potential for backlash but, highly porous
Two theories of the goals of censorship in China
A. State Critique theory
- goal is regime is to silence dissent
B. Theory of Collective Action Potential
- goal is regime is to prevent successful collective action
Three types of Internet Censorship in China
A. ‘The Great Firewall of China’
- disallows entire websites
B. keyword Blocking
C. Manual Content Filtering
Speed of Censorship
Incredibly fast, day of almost
Free Speech Equation
Free Speech = neg sumation of the prob you will be sanctions times the cost of being sanctioned
