68 things you cannot say on China's internet

The guidelines ban material that depicts excessive drinking or gambling; that sensationalises 'bizarre or grotesque' criminal cases

Song Jie, a writer in central China, knows what she can and cannot write in the romance novels she publishes online. Words that describe explicit sexual acts are out, of course. Even euphemisms like “behind” or “bottom” can trigger censorship by software filters or a website’s employees.

Other prohibitions inside China’s Great Firewall, the country’s system of internet filters and controls, are trickier to navigate, in part because they are subjective and even contradictory. And there are more and more of them. In a directive circulated this summer, the state-controlled association that polices China’s fast-growing digital media sector set out