Flagged and Framed: Reporting, Harm, and Justice in Chinese Fan Fiction Communities
(2026) SOLM02 20261Sociology of Law Department
- Abstract
- In Chinese fan fiction communities, the reporting button was made for flagging inappropriate content, but it has become a weapon in community conflict. An anonymous report can trigger removal or suspension, and those affected receive little explanation of how the decision was made. This thesis names this phenomenon weaponised reporting and asks how it operates and how targets pursue remedies under weak institutional redress. The empirical site is the Game X incident, studied through autoethnography and online ethnography. I use governmentality to examine how reporting organises conduct and sanction while staying opaque to those it processes. Where opacity makes harm difficult to name procedurally, zemiology supplies a vocabulary for... (More)
- In Chinese fan fiction communities, the reporting button was made for flagging inappropriate content, but it has become a weapon in community conflict. An anonymous report can trigger removal or suspension, and those affected receive little explanation of how the decision was made. This thesis names this phenomenon weaponised reporting and asks how it operates and how targets pursue remedies under weak institutional redress. The empirical site is the Game X incident, studied through autoethnography and online ethnography. I use governmentality to examine how reporting organises conduct and sanction while staying opaque to those it processes. Where opacity makes harm difficult to name procedurally, zemiology supplies a vocabulary for injuries that platform rules and law do not recognise. Kaleidoscopic justice frames the partial remedies that targets pursue. Harm here is lived as uncertainty about who reports and when. It is felt in the repetition of self-protection that wears on the body, and in the damaged standing of creative work that can disappear at any moment. In response, targets and supporters build their own evidentiary and interpretive practices. These produce partial voice and recognition within the community and restore a measure of dignity. At the platform level, consequences and accountability do not follow. The thesis contributes to socio-legal discussions of platform governance by locating harm at the level of procedure, and by writing from inside the affected community. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9233080
- author
- Hu, Yichen LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- SOLM02 20261
- year
- 2026
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- weaponised reporting, platform governance, Chinese fan fiction communities, autoethnography, governmentality, zemiology, kaleidoscopic justice
- language
- English
- id
- 9233080
- date added to LUP
- 2026-06-24 14:47:39
- date last changed
- 2026-06-24 14:47:39
@misc{9233080,
abstract = {{In Chinese fan fiction communities, the reporting button was made for flagging inappropriate content, but it has become a weapon in community conflict. An anonymous report can trigger removal or suspension, and those affected receive little explanation of how the decision was made. This thesis names this phenomenon weaponised reporting and asks how it operates and how targets pursue remedies under weak institutional redress. The empirical site is the Game X incident, studied through autoethnography and online ethnography. I use governmentality to examine how reporting organises conduct and sanction while staying opaque to those it processes. Where opacity makes harm difficult to name procedurally, zemiology supplies a vocabulary for injuries that platform rules and law do not recognise. Kaleidoscopic justice frames the partial remedies that targets pursue. Harm here is lived as uncertainty about who reports and when. It is felt in the repetition of self-protection that wears on the body, and in the damaged standing of creative work that can disappear at any moment. In response, targets and supporters build their own evidentiary and interpretive practices. These produce partial voice and recognition within the community and restore a measure of dignity. At the platform level, consequences and accountability do not follow. The thesis contributes to socio-legal discussions of platform governance by locating harm at the level of procedure, and by writing from inside the affected community.}},
author = {{Hu, Yichen}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Flagged and Framed: Reporting, Harm, and Justice in Chinese Fan Fiction Communities}},
year = {{2026}},
}