  With the shift of public discourse to social media, we see simultaneously an
expansion of civic engagement as the bar to enter the conversation is lowered,
and the reaction by both state and non-state adversaries of free speech to
silence these voices. Traditional forms of censorship struggle in this new
situation to enforce the preferred narrative of those in power. Consequently,
they have developed new methods for controlling the conversation that use the
social media platform itself.
  Using the Central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan as a main case study, this
talk explores how this new form of "subtle" censorship relies on pretence and
imitation, and why interdisciplinary methods of research are needed to grapple
with it. We examine how "fakeness" in the form of fake news and profiles is
used as methods of subtle censorship.
