This review discusses the content and implications of Margaret E. Roberts’ book, Censored: Distraction and Diversion Inside China’s Great Firewall, (Princeton University Press, April 2018), beginning with the author’s background, and followed with a by-chapter breakdown and conclusion. This review also evaluates Roberts’ ability to deconstruct false assumptions about authoritarian censorship in the digital age. While information is more widespread and accessible now than ever, it also comes with greater vulnerability to the weaponization of disinformation in the cyber domain. Although some of China's dystopian cyber censorship follow conventional wisdom while other features are radically different from conventional wisdom. Liberal democracy advocates must brace for China’s integrated model of “porous censorship” to rapidly proliferate.
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