How Xiaohongshu Censors “Sudden Incidents”

A leaked inside doc from Xiaohongshu reveals how the Instagram-like social media and e-commerce firm offers with censoring discourse about  “sudden incidents” on its platform. The doc is a part of a hundred-plus-page trove that particulars how the corporate censors its customers in compliance with Beijing’s instructions. Final week, we printed a partial translation of 546 derogatory nicknames for Xi Jinping, compiled over the course of two months, that was included within the leak.

The doc on “sudden incidents”—an official designation for accidents, pure disasters, and political disturbances—is titled “Public Opinion Monitoring System & Administration Procedures,” and divulges each what Xiaohongshu considers delicate and the method by which it censors it with “no omissions.” It begins with an in depth and expansive record of incident sorts prone to require particular remedy. The record embody carjackings, landslides, the “Two Classes,” unlawful cult exercise, outbreaks of illness amongst livestock, labor strikes, geographic discrimination, public criticism of the Chinese language Communist Get together, scholar suicides, and even the introduction of merchandise that may compete with Xiaohongshu for its person base’s eyes—seemingly blurring the road between censorship and anti-competitive practices. Sudden incidents that happen in Shanghai and Beijing are handled with further scrutiny. A word beneath the record reads: “If a sudden incident is confirmed to have occurred in Beijing or Shanghai, report it to the Authorities Relations Staff [1] instantly.”

The doc goes on to element the exact mechanisms by which Xiaohongshu quashes dialogue of the potential incidents listed above, a course of that differs relying on the place the censorship order comes from. Censorship directives issued by the Our on-line world Administration of China are to be applied in “real-time,” whereas inside censorship directives require a response inside a relatively lax five-minutes. In each circumstances, Xiaohongshu builds new lexicons of “delicate” phrases that it retains on an inside server and “banned” phrases that it stories to a better authority, both its Shanghai Operation Safety Group or a separate Shanghai-based group. The lexicon contains spinoff variants of each “delicate” and “banned” phrases.

CDT has translated the doc in full:

Public Opinion Monitoring System & Administration Procedures

 

(1) Definition of Public Opinion Monitoring Incidents

• Content material that’s prone to incite public panic and affect social stability, corresponding to a catastrophic hearth at a delicate location, “mass incidents”, violent prison circumstances focused at particular populations (deadly stabbings, scholar stabbings, scholar suicides, little one abuse, and many others.).
• Incidents that have an effect on public well being or security, corresponding to chemical explosions, terrorist assaults, outbreaks of meals poisoning, main industrial accidents, visitors accidents, and different accidents that end in large-scale lack of life or different damages. 
• Main pure disasters and epidemics, together with catastrophic earthquakes, floods, landslides, cave-ins, and extreme outbreaks of illness amongst folks or livestock.
• Trending subjects that supervisory departments have ordered to be deleted and which might be prone to fire up public sentiment on-line, corresponding to geographic discrimination (i.e. the “Beijing Grandpa Incident”).
• Main mass incidents, mainly large-scale unlawful gatherings, petitions, appeals, unlawful assemblies, marches, demonstrations, labor strikes, scholar strikes, trainer strikes, service provider strikes, and many others.; obstructing railways, highways, bridges, or roads; besieging or bodily attacking authorities workers; breaking into Get together, governmental, and different critically vital administrative places of work; incidents involving beating, smashing, looting, burning, combating with weapons, and different incidents, together with main unlawful actions by cults and different outlawed organizations. 
• Main prison and public safety circumstances, together with arsons, poisonings, murders, explosions, hijackings, carjackings, shootings, jailbreaks, riots, and large-scale brawls, looting, or property destruction.
• Delicate societal incidents and expressions of public opinion. Societal incidents that would set off political or social unrest and threaten nationwide safety. Widespread public criticism or solutions focused on the Chinese language Communist Get together and authorities establishments. 
• Rivals’ merchandise (that would affect our platform)
• Regulatory departments (policy-related, exposés about counterfeit cosmetics, and many others.)
• Periodic main occasions (The Two Classes and the China Worldwide Import Expo, for instance)

Word: If a sudden incident is confirmed to have occurred in Beijing or Shanghai, report it to the Authorities Relations Staff instantly. 

 

(2) Administration Procedures for Sudden Incidents

1. Xiaohongshu Inside Procedures for Managing Public Opinion on Sudden Incidents
   

 

Word: Report all high-risk incidents to neighborhood managers and the Shanghai Operation Safety Group inside 5 minutes. For periodic incidents, submit every day stories to neighborhood managers and the Shanghai Operation Safety Group.

 

(3) Sudden Incident Response Time

Inside Public Opinion: five-minute response
CAC Directive: real-time response

 

(4) Necessities for Including New Key phrases 

1. Rapidly extract key phrases so as to add to the sensitive- and banned-words lists (report back to Shanghai headquarters) and lexicon of well-liked phrases (for instance, place names corresponding to Beijing). Phrases associated to periodic occasions may be adjusted as occasions progress.
2. Conduct a secondary evaluation to establish derivatives of delicate key phrases, add them to lists, and report back to supervisors. 
3. After key phrases have been added, verify that key phrase filters are working through the evaluation course of. Report any ineffective filters to the censorship workforce and supply suggestions to the related division in a well timed method.

 

(5) Emergency Overview Process 

•  Sudden Incident Administration Process Following a Directive [from CAC]

 

Step-by-Step Disaster Response Following a [CAC] Directive
	Motion	Measures
Step 1	Rapidly Take Offline	1. Unified evaluation of requirements. Staff chief designates reviewing personnel.
		2. Staff chief assigns personnel to conduct speedy evaluation of search-results record for the unique title, textual content, tags, and associated movies.
		3. Staff chief orders a evaluation of well-liked or widely-used key phrases.
		4. Apportion key phrases amongst reviewing personnel to keep away from duplicated effort.
		5. Staff chief assigns personnel so as to add key phrases (each delicate and banned) to the backend.
		6. Reviewing personnel start synchronous evaluation on the backend utilizing Athena.
		7. Conduct a secondary evaluation to extract spinoff phrases, and report again to workforce chief.
Step 2	Detailed Screening	1. Apportion spinoff phrases amongst reviewing personnel to keep away from duplicated effort and add to backend key phrase warnings.
		2. Conduct synchronous evaluation on Athena backend. Search and retrieve primarily based on granular sorting, default sorting, reputation, and time-stamp. Display screen primarily based on the variety of key phrase hits.
Step 3	Ultimate Overview	1. Carry out a secondary evaluation of front- and backend, examine outcomes to substantiate that key phrases are working and that there are not any omissions on backend.
		2. Compile evaluation knowledge and put together to report knowledge to supervisors.
		3. Summarize evaluation standing, iron out any issues, and enhance work effectivity.

 

•  Inside Administration Procedures for Sudden Public Opinion Incidents

 

Inside Procedures for Dealing with Sudden Public Opinion Incidents

Overview Procedures

1. Monitor sudden public opinion incidents.

2. Report back to supervisors and outline commonplace scale of operation.

3. Staff chief units operational standards and assigns personnel to conduct speedy evaluation of search-results record for the unique title, textual content, tags, and associated movies.

4. Staff chief orders a evaluation of well-liked or widely-used key phrases.

5.  Apportion key phrases amongst reviewing personnel to keep away from duplicated effort.

6. Staff chief assigns personnel so as to add key phrases (each delicate and banned) to the backend.

7. Reviewing personnel start synchronous evaluation on the backend utilizing Athena.

8. Conduct a secondary evaluation to extract spinoff phrases, and report again to workforce chief.

9. Apportion spinoff phrases amongst reviewing personnel to keep away from duplicated effort and add to backend key phrase warnings.

10. Conduct synchronous evaluation on Athena backend. Search and retrieve primarily based on granular sorting, default sorting, reputation, and time-stamp. Display screen primarily based on the variety of key phrase hits.

11. Carry out a secondary evaluation of front- and backend, examine outcomes to substantiate that key phrases are working and that there are not any omissions on backend.

12.  Compile evaluation knowledge and put together to report knowledge to supervisors.

13. Summarize evaluation standing, iron out any issues, and enhance work effectivity.

[Chinese]