6 ideas
Roberts argues that much modern censorship raises the cost and effort of accessing information rather than blocking it outright. Small taxes on time and inconvenience deter the casual majority even when content remains technically reachable.
She classifies censorship into three mechanisms: fear (intimidation), friction (making access costly), and flooding (drowning content in noise). The regime relies more on the subtle latter two than on overt repression.
Rather than only removing posts, the state floods discourse with diversionary content to redirect attention. Steering what people notice proves more effective and less visible than suppressing what they say.
The firewall is deliberately leaky, letting the motivated few evade it while stopping the many who will not bother. Control is calibrated to the average citizen's low willingness to pay costs.
Empirical analysis shows censors tolerate complaints about the government but aggressively remove content that could spur real-world mobilization. The regime fears coordination more than criticism.
Roberts treats what gets censored as a signal revealing what the regime fears most. Measuring removals becomes a method for inferring the state's hidden priorities.