It’s not unusual to purchase an international news magazine in China and have big black marks running through stories that the government considers sensitive—Taiwan, Tibet, and Tiananmen Square, to name a few. But a study published this week found Internet readers may not even see the story or the publication itself.

“Internet Filtering in China in 2004-2005: A Country Study” is a result of the OpenNet Initiative (ONI). Funded by George Soros' Open Society Institute, ONI is a collaboration of researchers at Harvard University, the University of Cambridge, and the University of Toronto working on issues of Internet censorship and surveillance. The organization’s conclusion: in China, web users are both closely watched and often prevented from seeing content of a political, religious, or sexual nature.