Editing Internet censorship in China (section)

====Debates about the significance of Internet resistance to censorship====
According to Chinese studies expert Johan Lagerkvist, scholars [[Pierre Bourdieu]] and [[Michel de Certeau]] argue that this culture of satire is a weapon of resistance against authority.<ref name="After the Internet">{{cite book|last=Lagerkvist|first=Johan|title=After the Internet, Before Democracy: Competing Norms in Chinese Media and Society|year=2010|publisher=Peter Lang|location=Berlin|pages=155–156}}</ref> This is because criticism against authority often results in satirical parodies that "presupposes and confirms emancipation" of the supposedly oppressed people.<ref name="After the Internet"/> Academic writer [[Linda Hutcheon]] argues that some people, however, may view satirical language that is used to criticise the government as "complicity", which can "reinforce rather than subvert conservative attitudes".<ref name="After the Internet page 156">{{cite book|last=Lagerkvist|first=Johan|title=After the Internet, Before Democracy: Competing Norms in Chinese Media and Society|year=2010|publisher=Peter Lang|location=Berlin|page=156}}</ref> Chinese experts [[Perry Link]] and [[Xiao Qiang]], however, oppose this argument. They claim that when sarcastic terms develop into common vocabulary of netizens, these terms would lose their sarcastic characteristic. They then become normal terms that carry significant political meanings that oppose the government.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Link|first1=Perry|first2=Xiao |last2=Qiang|title=From "Fart People" to Citizens|journal=Journal of Democracy|year=2013|volume=24|issue=1|page=82|doi=10.1353/jod.2013.0014|s2cid=153466102}}</ref> Xiao believes that the netizens' freedom to spread information on the Internet has forced the government to listen to popular demands of netizens.<ref name=Battle>{{cite journal|last=Xiang|first=Xiao|title=The Battle for the Chinese Internet|journal=Journal of Democracy|year=2011|volume=22|issue=2|page=47|doi=10.1353/jod.2011.0020|s2cid=201796989}}</ref> For example, the [[Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People's Republic of China|Ministry of Information Technology]]'s plan to preinstall mandatory censoring software called [[Green Dam Youth Escort]] on computers failed after popular online opposition against it in 2009, the year of the 20th anniversary of the protest.<ref name="Battle"/><ref>{{cite news|last1=Loretta|first1=Chao|title=Green Dam Troubles Mount|url=https://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2010/07/13/green-dam-troubles-mount.|access-date=8 April 2014|newspaper=The Wall Street Journal|first2=Sue |last2=Feng|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160308071311/http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2010/07/13/green-dam-troubles-mount./|archive-date=8 March 2016|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=胡|first=泳|title=困境与共谋：中国网民权利分析 (in Chinese)|url=http://xwjz.eastday.com/eastday/xwjz/node371540/node371541/u1a4763871.html|publisher=East Day|access-date=8 April 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140409071557/http://xwjz.eastday.com/eastday/xwjz/node371540/node371541/u1a4763871.html|archive-date=9 April 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref>
     
Lagerkvist states that the Chinese government, however, does not see subtle criticisms on the Internet as real threats that carry significant political meanings and topple the government.<ref name="After the Internet page 157">{{cite book|last=Lagerkvist|first=Johan|title=After the Internet, Before Democracy: Competing Norms in Chinese Media and Society|year=2010|publisher=Peter Lang|location=Berlin|page=157}}</ref> He argues that real threats occur only when "laugh mobs" become "organised smart mobs" that directly challenge the government's power.<ref name="After the Internet"/> At a [[TED conference]], [[Michael Anti (journalist)|Michael Anti]] gives a similar reason for the government's lack of enforcement against these Internet memes.<ref name="Anti firewall">{{cite web|title=Michael Anti: Behind the Great Firewall of China|date=30 July 2012 |url=http://www.ted.com/talks/michael_anti_behind_the_great_firewall_of_china/transcript|publisher=TED|access-date=28 March 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140317044825/http://www.ted.com/talks/michael_anti_behind_the_great_firewall_of_china/transcript|archive-date=17 March 2014|url-status=live}}</ref> Anti suggests that the government sometimes allows limited windows of freedom of speech such as Internet memes. Anti explains that this is to guide and generate public opinions that favor the government and to criticize enemies of the party officials.<ref name="Anti firewall"/>