One common misconception is that all censorship is done automatically based on keywords. While it's true that internet searches in particular, and visits to ban

One common misconception is that all censorship is done automatically based on keywords. While it's true that internet searches in particular, and visits to banned websites are greeted with a connection reset, the censorship of message boards is done by hordes of low-paid individual workers (the "50-cent party" [1]) that are local to each district. Your girlfriend's post (which was a one-word post, and an inflammatory one at that) was probably spotted by whichever worker(s) were responsible for monitoring that message board. When such a post is removed, it's typically referred to by netizens as being "harmonized", a play on Hu Jintao's "Harmonious Society" slogan [2]. You should check out the archives of a site like chinasmack or chinahush[3], who have translated summaries of popular chinese message board topics and gives a good feel of the day-to-day life of a chinese netizen. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/50_Cent_Party http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/50_Cent_Party [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonious_Society http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonious_Society [3] http://chinasmack.com http://chinasmack.com http://chinahush.com http://chinahush.com