The Great Firewall and the #Metoo Movement: Chinese Censorship and Regulation of Digital Activism

The Chinese government operates one of the most extensive systems of Internet censorship anywhere in the world. Colloquially referred to as the /Great Firewall of China /the term is something of a misnomer since rather than a ‘firewall’ there is an extensive set of mechanisms Chinese authorities use to effect control of the internet, ban and block websites, filter content and conduct monitoring and surveillance of users. What the term connotes, however, is the desire by the Chinese Communist Party to protect the country from ‘hostile foreign forces’ (境外(敌对)势力) and to ensure that the Internet remains fully under the sovereignty of the Chinese government. This paper will analyze and examinethe various mechanisms by which the Chinese government censors and regulates Internet activity and evaluate the effectiveness of those mechanisms. To accomplish the latter,the paper will explore prominent forms of digital and social media activism in China in recent years focusing especially on the #metoo movement (Wo Ye Shi #我也是). The MeToo movement began in China in January 2018 when a former doctoral student Luo Xixi accused her former supervisor Chen Xiaowu of sexually harassing her and several other students at Beihang University. As the movement spread beyond college campuses Chinese authorities became increasingly concerned that the movement would become more formally organized. Consequently, censors began to block content including references to Wo Ye Shi and #Metoo. However, as with previous attempts to censor activism on social media, Chinese internet users revealed themselves to particularly adept at finding creative means to circumvent the censors. As a result, the #metoo movement spread more widely with accusations made against journalists, sports coaches and one of China’s most watched television hosts. What can we learn from this case about the contestation between censors and activists online in China? About regulation and control of digital media in authoritarian regimes? And about the nature of digital activism itself.