Big mama

For other uses of the term, please see Big Mama.

Big mama (Simplified Chinese: 大妈; Pinyin: dà mā) is a Chinese language neologism for an Internet censor on web bulletin board systems in the People's Republic of China. It can be vaguely compared to the Western Big Brother concept, though on a much lesser scale.

Etymology

The name is derived from the name for the wife of the eldest uncle, who in traditional Chinese families has the responsibility to take care of everyone. The big mama is usually an employee of the company sponsoring the board whose job it is to remove politically sensitive postings. Big mamas act quite openly and are not reluctant to admit the fact that they are censoring and why they are doing so. The actions of big mamas are generally taken more with annoyance and amusement than with alarm, and there is often some humorous bantering with big mama.

See also

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