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PALIMPSEST·CN

China censorship monitor — the censor as a sensor
DDTI · SELECTIVITYNOVELTY · LIVE01:56:28 UTC
State read. Censors are most active on translation excerpt (OTHER). Surging now: abuse of power (newly sensitive). Economic stress: 11% of censored attention is economic. 15 articles · 138 topics · 7 new this window.

Censor attention — top threats

01translation excerpt
OTHER4.45
02Caixin
OTHER3.35
03netizen comments
OTHER3.22
04Internet censorship
INFORMATION2.75
05social media censorship
INFORMATION2.72
06online censorship
INFORMATION2.72
07social media
INFORMATION2.50
08abuse of powerNEW
OTHER2.19

Economic stress — censorship-derived, by theme

11%of censored attention is economic · 2 articles
wages0.5
unemployment0.3
economy0.3
economic0.3
Transparency reading: what the censor scrubs about the economy, ahead of official statistics. Not a market signal.

DDTI — every topic ranked by attention × novelty

topic / sample flagged articlesdomainthreat
translation excerpt“Netizen Voices on the Investigation of Comedian Guo Degang for Riffing on a “Red” Tune: “T”“Mathematicians Wang Hong and Deng Yu Win Fields Medal, Prompting Debate About National Pri”“CDT’s “404 Deleted Content Archive” Summary for June 2026”OTHER4.45
att 1.78 · nov 1.00 · n=3
Caixin“Translation: “You Can’t Address Sexual Assault at Banquets Without Addressing the Nature o”“Translation: Migrant Worker Jing Shuren On Trial After Two-Year Detention for Reposting Un”OTHER3.35
att 1.52 · nov 0.80 · n=2
netizen comments“Netizen Voices on the Investigation of Comedian Guo Degang for Riffing on a “Red” Tune: “T”“Mathematicians Wang Hong and Deng Yu Win Fields Medal, Prompting Debate About National Pri”OTHER3.22
att 1.46 · nov 0.80 · n=2
Internet censorship“Translation: “Extreme Security” at Tiananmen Landmark in the Maddening Summer Heat”“Translation: The Deluge of Blocked Words Online – Why We Feel We “Cannot Speak Openly””“CDT’s “404 Deleted Content Archive” Summary for June 2026”INFORMATION2.75
att 2.22 · nov 0.16 · n=5
social media censorship“Translation: “Extreme Security” at Tiananmen Landmark in the Maddening Summer Heat”“Translation: The Deluge of Blocked Words Online – Why We Feel We “Cannot Speak Openly””“CDT’s “404 Deleted Content Archive” Summary for June 2026”INFORMATION2.72
att 2.20 · nov 0.16 · n=5
online censorship“Translation: “Extreme Security” at Tiananmen Landmark in the Maddening Summer Heat”“Translation: The Deluge of Blocked Words Online – Why We Feel We “Cannot Speak Openly””“CDT’s “404 Deleted Content Archive” Summary for June 2026”INFORMATION2.72
att 2.20 · nov 0.16 · n=5
social media“Translation: The Deluge of Blocked Words Online – Why We Feel We “Cannot Speak Openly””“Translation: Migrant Worker Jing Shuren On Trial After Two-Year Detention for Reposting Un”INFORMATION2.50
att 1.13 · nov 0.80 · n=2
abuse of powerNEW“Translation: “You Can’t Address Sexual Assault at Banquets Without Addressing the Nature o”OTHER2.19
att 1.00 · nov 0.80 · n=1
HangzhouNEW“Translation: “You Can’t Address Sexual Assault at Banquets Without Addressing the Nature o”OTHER2.19
att 1.00 · nov 0.80 · n=1
local officialsNEW“Translation: “You Can’t Address Sexual Assault at Banquets Without Addressing the Nature o”OTHER2.19
att 1.00 · nov 0.80 · n=1
singaporeNEW“Translation: “You Can’t Address Sexual Assault at Banquets Without Addressing the Nature o”OTHER2.19
att 1.00 · nov 0.80 · n=1
sexual assaultNEW“Translation: “You Can’t Address Sexual Assault at Banquets Without Addressing the Nature o”OTHER2.19
att 1.00 · nov 0.80 · n=1
sexual harassmentNEW“Translation: “You Can’t Address Sexual Assault at Banquets Without Addressing the Nature o”OTHER2.19
att 1.00 · nov 0.80 · n=1
official conductNEW“Translation: “You Can’t Address Sexual Assault at Banquets Without Addressing the Nature o”OTHER2.19
att 1.00 · nov 0.80 · n=1
humor“Netizen Voices on the Investigation of Comedian Guo Degang for Riffing on a “Red” Tune: “T”“Translation: “AI Has Determined That My Press Card Is a Fake””OTHER1.98
att 1.23 · nov 0.40 · n=2
insulting heroes and martyrs“Netizen Voices on the Investigation of Comedian Guo Degang for Riffing on a “Red” Tune: “T”OTHER1.81
att 0.82 · nov 0.80 · n=1
freedom of expression“Netizen Voices on the Investigation of Comedian Guo Degang for Riffing on a “Red” Tune: “T”INFORMATION1.81
att 0.82 · nov 0.80 · n=1
revolutionary films“Netizen Voices on the Investigation of Comedian Guo Degang for Riffing on a “Red” Tune: “T”OTHER1.81
att 0.82 · nov 0.80 · n=1

Surging topics — novelty (newly / bursting sensitive)

translation excerpt1.00
Caixin0.80
netizen comments0.80
social media0.80
abuse of power0.80
Hangzhou0.80
local officials0.80
singapore0.80
sexual assault0.80
sexual harassment0.80

Attention by domain

OTHER102
INFORMATION20
SOCIETY5
ECONOMY4
UNREST4
LEADERSHIP2
FOREIGN1

What this is. Live public-source measurement, built from the China Digital Times feed of documented censorship directives and scrubbed material. Terms are ranked by censor attention and by novelty — how recently a term became sensitive — against a persisted history, so a term marked new really is new to this instrument.

What it is not. This page carries no deletion velocity: that component cannot be measured from outside the wall and is suppressed across the platform rather than estimated. Attention and novelty are reachable and are what you see here. Every figure traces to a public source, and the reading states the moment it was taken.

Sibling project. Seiche is this page's mirror image: a free funding-stress terminal for US money markets, possible because the Fed publishes its plumbing every week. Palimpsest works the opposite case, a state that curates what may be known. Both read the same China money-market benchmarks, collected keyless by this project and consumed by Seiche's CHINA row.

Full method in METHODOLOGY.md · the deeper board is the Observatory · raw datasets on the researcher page.