Negotiating censorial power and its legitimacy: a case study of the second face of state censorship

This article proposes the ‘second face of censorship’, emphasizing how states use censorial institutions to reinforce their value system and moral authority. It argues that censorship involves an interactive power dynamic between state censors and society, posing the question of legitimacy in censorial power dynamics, which is crucial for authoritarian resilience. To investigate this interactive process and the possibility of legitimacy, this article conducted a case study of public reactions to the takedown of a drama series in China. It examines how public sentiment and state responses intertwined in censorial practice, revealing the construction of descriptive legitimacy through negotiation.