Wind from an empty cave? Online rumor and ideology in postsocialist China and Russia

Abstract

If the online spread of incendiary information has recently been hotly debated in the West, then related phenomena have been longer-standing concerns in China and Russia. Since 2009, explosions in social media use in both countries have seen internet “rumors” proliferate, alongside governmental efforts to curb them. The postsocialist environment is pivotal to these rumors’ spread, as shown by their fixation on symbols of the postsocialist era – particularly the mysterious dealings of political elites. Because the powerful leaders which these rumors target continue as they did under socialism to promote top–down ideological visions of social reality, these rumors appear to represent a form of anti-establishment “resistance.” But an anthropological approach to Chinese and Russian rumors, including comparison with magic and witchcraft practices studied elsewhere in the world, reveals that the authorities’ attempts to combat them with “fact” are misguided, and offers a new understanding of this highly contemporary phenomenon.