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Censorship
AbacusCulture

China’s popular review site Douban hides reviews for book on Hong Kong’s national security law after a slew of negative comments

  • Douban is known for its community of liberal bookworms and film fanatics
  • Censorship is common on China’s internet platforms, which are responsible for taking down content deemed inappropriate or sensitive

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A woman walks past a poster for the National Security Law in Hong Kong on July 28. Photo: AFP
Karen Chiu
Ever since Hong Kong adopted a national security law passed by Beijing on July 1, most social platforms in mainland China have been awash in articles and comments praising the arrests of political activists.
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But on one widely-used book review site, a publication detailing the new legislation was swamped with bad reviews before the rating function was removed altogether.

An archived page from Douban shows that the book, published by the state-owned China Legal Publishing House, had a score of 2.5 out of 10 as of August 15.

Douban, founded by a former IBM engineer, combines the functions of various Western sites like Rotten Tomatoes, Goodreads and Reddit. It’s made up of an avid community of film fanatics and bookworms who pride themselves as “utopian hipsters”. The relatively liberal atmosphere has resulted in some colourful and sensitive comments that were later censored.
An archived page on Douban shows that a book detailing Hong Kong's new national security law received a paltry 1.5 out of 5 stars. Image: Douban via Wayback Machine
An archived page on Douban shows that a book detailing Hong Kong's new national security law received a paltry 1.5 out of 5 stars. Image: Douban via Wayback Machine

Reviews were no different for this book, which documents the decision of the National People‘s Congress to pass the new law and “safeguard national security”.

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