State, Morality, and the Digital Public Sphere: A Comparative Study of Content Moderation Rationales in China and Pakistan

Content moderation regimes are typically studied within their own national and political contexts, and rarely compared across ostensibly incompatible political systems. This paper compares the moral rationale of content moderation in China and Pakistan, two states that differ sharply in regime type, religious establishment, and legal tradition, to examine whether a common structural pattern underlies their otherwise distinct architectures. Drawing on China's Cyberspace Administration “Qinglang” campaigns and Pakistan's Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) of 2016 and its 2025 amendment, the analysis compares three axes of moderation: the definitional vocabulary used to justify harm, the institutional authority empowered to adjudicate it, and the operational logic through which enforcement proceeds. Existing scholarship has treated Chinese cyber-sovereignty and Pakistani blasphemy-obscenity regulation as largely separate literatures, leaving open what, if anything, connects authoritarian and hybrid-democratic content regulation. This paper addresses that gap through a documentary comparative analysis of primary regulatory texts, government and non-governmental reports, and peer-reviewed scholarship, structured through a most-different systems design. The analysis suggests that despite divergent definitional grammars and institutional architectures, both regimes are consistent with a recurring pattern of regulatory and extra-legal attention to women's digital visibility. This pattern is conceptualized as digital pardah: a reconstruction of modesty governance in which platform infrastructure, statutory language, and informal social authority jointly, rather than singly, produce the conditions under which women's online presence becomes governable. The paper argues that digital pardah captures a mechanism, the joint and often uncoordinated action of state, platform, and family authority on the same body, that existing frameworks of platform governance, algorithmic visibility, and digital authoritarianism do not individually specify.

content moderation, digital pardah, gender, platform governance, digital authoritarianism

1. Abu-Lughod, L. (1986). Veiled sentiments: Honor and poetry in a Bedouin society. University of California Press. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

2. Ahmed, Z. S., et al. (2024). Contestations of internet governance and digital authoritarianism in Pakistan. International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10767-024-09493-2 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

3. Al Jazeera. (2020, October 9). Pakistan bans TikTok over 'indecent' content. Al Jazeera. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/10/9/pakistan-bans-tiktok-over-indecent-content [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

4. Al Jazeera. (2025, June 4). Who was Sana Yousaf, Pakistani TikTok star shot dead by a gunman? Al Jazeera. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/6/4/who-was-sana-yousaf-pakistani-tiktok-star-shot-dead-by-a-gunman [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

5. Amnesty International. (2025, January 29). Pakistan: Authorities pass bill with sweeping controls on social media. Amnesty International. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2025/01/pakistan-authorities-pass-bill-with-sweeping-controls-on-social-media/ [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

6. Banet-Weiser, S. (2018). Empowered: Popular feminism and popular misogyny. Duke University Press. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

7. Bucher, T. (2012). Want to be on the top? Algorithmic power and the threat of invisibility on Facebook. New Media & Society, 14(7), 1164–1180. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444812440159 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

8. Creemers, R. (2017). Cyber China: Upgrading propaganda, public opinion work and social management for the twenty-first century. Journal of Contemporary China, 26(103), 85–100. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

9. Daily Times. (2024, June 27). PHC orders PTA to remove blasphemous content from TikTok. Daily Times. https://dailytimes.com.pk/1204152/phc-orders-pta-to-remove-blasphemous-content-from-tiktok/ [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

10. Dawn. (2024, April 5). PTA blocks 1.07m 'objectionable' web links, PHC informed. Dawn. https://www.dawn.com/news/1825730/pta-blocks-107m-objectionable-web-links-phc-informed [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

11. Digital Rights Foundation. (2024). Cyber harassment helpline report 2023. https://digitalrightsfoundation.pk/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/DRFs-Cyber-Harassment-Helpline-Report-2023.pdf [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

12. Digital Rights Foundation. (2026). Annual report: Digital security helpline (2025). https://digitalrightsfoundation.pk/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/2025-Helpline-Annual-Report-1.pdf [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

13. Durkheim, E. (1984). The division of labor in society (W. D. Halls, Trans.). Free Press. (Original work published 1893) [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

14. Feldstein, S. (2021). The rise of digital repression: How technology is reshaping power, politics, and resistance. Oxford University Press. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

15. Foucault, M. (1977). Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison (A. Sheridan, Trans.). Pantheon Books. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

16. Gillespie, T. (2018). Custodians of the internet: Platforms, content moderation, and the hidden decisions that shape social media. Yale University Press. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

17. Global Times. (2025, January). China's cyberspace watchdog launches month-long campaign to promote positive cyber environment ahead of Spring Festival. Global Times. https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202501/1327167.shtml [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

18. Global Times. (2026, February). China's top internet regulator launches month-long Spring Festival campaign targeting AI-generated harmful content. People's Daily Online. http://en.people.cn/n3/2026/0213/c90000-20425957.html [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

19. Global Voices. (2020, October 23). Pakistan lifts ban on TikTok with conditions. Global Voices. https://globalvoices.org/2020/10/23/pakistan-lifts-ban-on-tiktok-with-conditions/ [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

20. Gorwa, R., Binns, R., & Katzenbach, C. (2020). Algorithmic content moderation: Technical and political challenges in the automation of platform governance. Big Data & Society, 7(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951719897945 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

21. Government of Pakistan. (2016). Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

22. Government of Pakistan. (2025). Prevention of Electronic Crimes (Amendment) Act, 2025. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

23. Han, R. (2016). From vagueness to clarity? Articulating legal criteria of digital content regulation in China. Global Media and Communication, 12(3), 211–227. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

24. ICLG. (2025). China's key developments in artificial intelligence governance in 2025. In Telecoms, media and internet laws and regulations 2026. International Comparative Legal Guides. https://iclg.com/practice-areas/telecoms-media-and-internet-laws-and-regulations/03-china-s-key-developments-in-artificial-intelligence-governance-in-2025 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

25. Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. (2025, May 16). Pakistan's content moderation regulation. ITIF. https://itif.org/publications/2025/05/16/pakistan-content-moderation-regulation/ [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

26. International Federation of Journalists. (2025, January 29). Pakistan: PECA amendments further tighten government grip on digital expression. IFJ. https://www.ifj.org/media-centre/news/detail/article/pakistan-peca-amendments-further-tighten-government-grip-on-digital-expression [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

27. Jamil, S. (2021). The rise of digital authoritarianism: Evolving threats to media and Internet freedoms in Pakistan. World of Media: Journal of Russian Media and Journalism Studies, 3, 5–33. https://doi.org/10.30547/worldofmedia.3.2021.1 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

28. Khalid Zafar & Associates. (2025). Prevention of Electronic Crimes (Amendment) Act, 2025. https://khalidzafar.com/laws-of-pakistan/prevention-of-electronic-crimes-amendment-act-2025/ [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

29. Liao, S. (2024). The platformization of misogyny: Popular media, gender politics, and misogyny in China's state-market nexus. Media, Culture & Society, 46(1), 191–203. https://doi.org/10.1177/01634437221146905 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

30. MacKinnon, R. (2011). China's “networked authoritarianism.” Journal of Democracy, 22(2), 32–46. https://doi.org/10.1353/jod.2011.0033 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

31. Mahmood, S. (2005). Politics of piety: The Islamic revival and the feminist subject. Princeton University Press. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

32. Naseer, S., & Ashraf, C. (2022). Gender-based violence in Pakistan's digital spaces. Feminist Legal Studies, 30(1), 29–50. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10691-021-09473-3 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

33. National Commission for Human Rights (Pakistan). (2026). Report on PECA and the 2025 amendments act. https://nchr.gov.pk/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/NCHR-Report-on-PECA-and-the-2025-Amendments-Act.pdf [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

34. Przeworski, A., & Teune, H. (1970). The logic of comparative social inquiry. Wiley-Interscience. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

35. Rest of World. (2023). China's internet feminist movement thrives despite censorship. https://restofworld.org/2023/china-online-feminist-movement/ [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

36. Roberts, S. T. (2019). Behind the screen: Content moderation in the shadows of social media. Yale University Press. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

37. Roberts, T., & Oosterom, M. (2024). Digital authoritarianism: A systematic literature review. Information Technology for Development, 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/02681102.2024.2425352 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

38. Shao, L., & Ao, M. (2025). Thematic evolution of China's media governance policies: A tri-logic synergistic perspective. Information, 16(8), Article 696. https://doi.org/10.3390/info16080696 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

39. Shao, S., & He, G. (2024). After account bombing: Chinese digital feminists haunt platform censorship as cyber living ghosts. Feminist Media Studies, 24(5), 944–961. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2024.2311362 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

40. South China Morning Post. (2025). China's Weibo shuts down social media accounts for 'inciting gender antagonism.' https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3322407/chinas-weibo-shuts-down-social-media-accounts-inciting-gender-antagonism [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

41. TechPolicy.Press. (2024). Pakistan on verge of techno-authoritarian turn. https://www.techpolicy.press/pakistan-on-verge-of-techno-authoritarian-turn/ [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

42. Wang, Y., Md Syed, M. A., & Shamshudeen, R. I. (2025). Cultural governance and censorship: Unpacking China's Qinglang Action. Asian Journal of Communication, 35(5), 469–489. https://doi.org/10.1080/01292986.2025.2526475 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

43. Wu, A. X., & Dong, Y. (2019). What is made-in-China feminism(s)? Gender discontent and class friction in post-socialist China. Critical Asian Studies, 51(4), 471–492. https://doi.org/10.1080/14672715.2019.1656538 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

44. Xinhua. (2025, February 21). China targets AI misuse in 2025 cyberspace cleanup initiative. Xinhua News Agency. https://english.news.cn/20250221/c30142348f62494d9cee5d8098061ee5/c.html [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

• Assessment of the Role of Artificial Intelligence in Repositioning TVET for Economic Development in Nigeria
• Teachers’ Use of Assure Model Instructional Design on Learners’ Problem Solving Efficacy in Secondary Schools in Bungoma County, Kenya
• “E-Booksan Ang Kaalaman”: Development, Validation, and Utilization of Electronic Book in Academic Performance of Grade 9 Students in Social Studies
• Analyzing EFL University Students’ Academic Speaking Skills Through Self-Recorded Video Presentation
• Major Findings of The Study on Total Quality Management in Teachers’ Education Institutions (TEIs) In Assam – An Evaluative Study