Allocating Content Governance Responsibility in China: Heterogeneous Public Attitudes Toward Multistakeholder Involvement Strategies

Abstract

While various social contexts have embraced the multistakeholder model of Internet governance, examination of its configurations and public expectations in the Global South is still rare. Through conducting a national survey (N = 1199), this study sheds light on the Chinese public's attitudes toward assigning responsibility to various entities (e.g., governments, platforms, and users) to moderate problematic content in cyberspace. Its focus is on distinguishing the regulatory strategies of each entity. Our results show the participants' preferences toward the government's preemptive regulation approach, the platform's community‐delegated approach, and high‐threshold civil intervention. Moreover, our research explores the influence of individual differences in media literacy and citizenship norms on public responsibility attribution. According to this “capability‐willingness axis,” we delineate four categories—ideal citizens, cynical experts, committed beginners, and inept laggards—and investigate the heterogeneity of the Chinese public in allocating content governance responsibility. Based on our results, we propose the concept of a “spiral of awareness” to describe the divided and fragmented landscape of public attitudes, where individuals with higher capability and willingness are more engaged with and supportive of cooperative responsibility, and vice versa. These insights underscore the public opinion foundation for transforming China's Internet governance and help explore how to develop efficient, coordinated, and mutually supportive accountability mechanisms within the multistakeholder model. Furthermore, this study contributes to the global discourse on the multistakeholder model by providing insights from evidence in China.