The Diminishing Returns of Tricking China’s Censors

[Commentary] Online censorship is about more than just the technical means of scrubbing information away. Its power to hinder effective communication can truly demoralize those seeking to oppose the status quo.

If memes and morphs are to become a tool for organizing, activists must engage and inspire young people before they can even think of educating them about the things being hidden from them, much less rousing them to action. Only then will the censors and their targets be playing on equal terms.

[Ng is a research fellow at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab]