Since 2018, narratives about a specific measure of internet censorship have emerged on the Chinese internet; netizens call this “account bombing” (炸号). It refers to the phenomenon that some social media accounts are blocked permanently by internet regulators without the users knowing the reasons for this or receiving any warnings in advance. Unlike the case of “digital suicide” where users actively disconnect themselves from social media (Karppi, 2011), account bombing as a type of internet surveillance can be devastating for users, especially when the social media platform (e.g. WeChat) is significantly intertwined with users’ daily lives. Compared to other measures of internet regulations in China, such as shutting down a whole website or deleting particular content posted by individual users, account bombing is a relatively new technique of internet governance, reflecting the tightening trend in China’s internet policies. The implication of account bombing for Chinese internet users remains to be researched.
Aimed at understanding how Chinese internet users make sense of account bombing experiences and react to internet regulations, this study examines users' narratives about this practice, especially the metaphors they employ. It contains a critical metaphor analysis (Charteris-Black, 2004) of preexisting online narratives and semi-structured interviews with individual users who had experienced account bombing. Preliminary findings suggest that the users often use the metaphors related to the body, such as “death penalty” (死刑), “wandering ghost” (游魂), “reincarnation” (转世), and a person's “will” (遗嘱). We thus examine the functions of these body metaphors in two dimensions: the cognitive and the affective. Regarding the cognitive dimension, body metaphors are embedded in and invoked by the internet users’ reinforced knowledge of the constrained role of the internet in the Chinese public life, users’ precarious ownerships of their personal data, users’ problematic dependence on large social media platforms, and the unpredictability of China’s internet censorship. Most of all, body metaphors are used to reveal the irreversibility of account bombing and the uneven power relations on the Chinese internet which are heavily skewed toward regulators. As for the affective dimension, body metaphors convey the internet users’ strong negative emotions, including amazement, anger, anxiety, frustration, helplessness, sadness, etc. They also establish the relevance of this seemly individual, sporadic experience to a broader audience, evoking sympathy both affectively and politically. Overall, body metaphors consolidate the sense users have made out of account bombing and make it relatable and easier to circulate online. They open a new way to understanding the implications of China’s internet policies.