This research examines the phenomenon of online harassment in China targeting journalists of Chinese descent working for Western media. As part of the global trend of increasing online attacks against journalists, this phenomenon also has its peculiarities in the temporal and cultural contexts of modern-day China, especially in an internet environment marked by nationalism and anti-Westernism, feminist movements pushing against dominant misogyny, and the omnipresence of the party-state.
Guided by Trottier’s concept of Digital Vigilantism and Crenshaw’s theory of intersectionality, it zooms in on the construction of different identities targeted in these campaigns and the roles different types of actors play. Using informed grounded theory as methodology, the author conducted an abductive analysis of 23 articles, 32 posts and 320 comments systematically collected from WeChat and Weibo, two of China’s largest social media platforms.
Findings show that when only the professional identity as a Western journalist is targeted, the victims are portrayed as propaganda machines intent on tarnishing China. When this professional identity is targeted together with Chinese ethnicity, they are framed as national traitors with internalised racism. When these two dimensions further intersect with female gender, the harassment becomes markedly more abusive, and the victims are depicted as selfish women who allow themselves to be used as tools and trophies by the US/West to demoralise the motherland.
The state, influencers, platforms, and ordinary netizens together stage concerted attacks, each employing distinct strategies and motivations. The state is directly and actively involved in identifying targets and staging focused denunciations, thereby also sending signals of what is encouraged to other actors. Platforms comply and calibrate what to censor and what to ignore. Influencers are the primary information collectors and material providers driven by profit-making in the attention economy. Ordinary users, situated at the following and receiving end, contribute some of the most abusive harassment. The ultimate goal of these campaigns, rather than silencing the targeted journalists, is to rally a nationalistic public and discipline potential individuals who might empathise with the victims.