Renegotiating the ‘Red Line’ in the Regulatory Regime

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter takes forward China’s recent policy initiatives to enhance digital regulation based on the conventional model of self-censorship and administrative intervention. The exercises of digital censorship are fundamentally about a balancing act of discerning the red line around what can be publicly represented as national ideology. In order to explain the current transition of the regulatory framework applied to the digital content industry, this chapter looks into the industry’s performances of interpreting and implementing the regulatory criteria in terms of recomposing national cultural values. Drawing on evidence found within national broadcasters and streaming services, it maintains that the compliance to politically acceptable discourse remains essential to the norms of a collective mainstream identity, especially when it involves the areas of national sovereignty, religion, and political legitimacy. This shows the continuity in policy thinking of mediating ideological conflicts and leads to questions about cultural identity and the politics of recognition.KeywordsPolitical controlIdeologyContent regulationCensorshipNational discourseCultural politics of media