research that checks more closely what the cause is

Roberts, M. E. (2018), Censored: Distraction and Diversion Inside China’s Great Firewall, Princeton University Press.

Contribution to this answer

Roberts shows that the control of information can use several different obstacles at the same time: someone is distracted by fear, someone extra effort is needed to get information, and someone is swamped with other content. The system does not have to block every man or every news to strongly change what most people eventually see.

review more research

Roberts, M. E. (2020), „Resilience to Online Censorship“, Annual Review of Political Science 23: 401–419.

Contribution to this answer

Roberts also shows where the limits of such control are: people easily bypass censorship when they know that something is hidden, have a strong reason to seek that information and have the means to get it. That is why effective censorship often tries to be invisible enough that people do not even feel the need to bypass it.

checking of digital traces and content

King, G., Pan, J. i Roberts, M. E. (2017), „How the Chinese Government Fabricates Social Media Posts for Strategic Distraction“, American Political Science Review 111(3): 484–501.

Contribution to this answer

King, Pan and Roberts show that propaganda doesn’t have to try to convince you that the government is right. China’s factory posts have largely changed the subject and distracted from conversation with the potential for mobilization which shows how backlogs can work alongside selective censorship.

comparing several countries or cases

Guriev, S. i Treisman, D. (2019), „Informational Autocrats“, Journal of Economic Perspectives 33(4): 100–127.

Contribution to this answer

Guriev and Treisman describe “information autocrats” who rely less on public terror and more on the image of their own ability: propaganda builds this image, censorship and co-optation silence people who might challenge it, and repression itself is often hidden instead of publicly demonstrated.

Explain how the system works

Schlumberger, O., Edel, M., Maati, A. i Saglam, K. (2024), „How Authoritarianism Transforms: A Framework for the Study of Digital Dictatorship“, Government and Opposition 59(3): 761–783.

Contribution to this answer

Schlumberger and co-authors warn that digital technology is not just a new tool for exactly the same old regimes: when digital surveillance, information control and other technologies sufficiently change the way government sees and intervenes in society, they can change the very structure of authoritarian governance.

research that checks more closely what the cause is

Brady, W. J., McLoughlin, K., Doan, T. N. i Crockett, M. J. (2021), „How Social Learning Amplifies Moral Outrage Expression in Online Social Networks“, Science Advances 7(33): eabe5641.

Brady, W. J., McLoughlin, K., Doan, T. N. i Crockett, M. J. (2021), "How Social Learning Amplifies Moral Outrage Expression in Online Social Networks", Science Advances 7(33): eabe5641.

Contribution to this answer

Brady and co-authors are useful here primarily as a counterweight: resentment and polarized content can be amplified through positive reactions from other users and norms within the network, without a state plan. That is why the very fact that public space is flooded with anger does not prove that everything was produced by propaganda.