{
  "id": "palimpsest-news:data-darkness",
  "slug": "official-data-darkness",
  "url": "https://palimpsest.info/news/official-data-darkness/",
  "signal_id": "data-darkness",
  "headline": "The official-data darkness index is 0.212 across 7 watched series",
  "dek": "Each official surface is judged against its own declared or observed publication rhythm, with unreachable sources kept separate.",
  "section": "economy",
  "order": 4,
  "type": "analysis",
  "priority": "high",
  "status": "live",
  "published_at": "2026-08-23T10:32:44Z",
  "modified_at": "2026-08-23T10:32:44Z",
  "claim_fingerprint": "sha256:08804ae5eef2691d64645f6ce8612b255b2c572fde39a9f71f3c7d2d222910be",
  "metric": {
    "label": "darkness index",
    "value": 0.212,
    "unit": "index",
    "denominator": {
      "label": "series watched",
      "value": 7
    }
  },
  "claims": [
    {
      "type": "finding",
      "statement": "The current publication-cadence darkness index is 0.212 across 7 watched official series."
    }
  ],
  "evidence": {
    "url": "https://palimpsest.info/readings/data-darkness-latest.json",
    "input": {
      "filename": "data-darkness-latest.json",
      "sha256": "28966221cc28b86763a0d977559f3992bc6401ad120881aa4f13b169286a03de",
      "bytes": 3882
    },
    "source_timestamp": "2026-08-23T10:32:44Z"
  },
  "method": {
    "summary": "publication-cadence watch: each surface reports the latest release visible from this vantage, scored as days-since against its own nominal cadence (business-day basis for daily series, so weekends are not darkness; Chinese public holidays are not modelled and appear as short recurring spikes the detector's reference learns). NBS series additionally carry days_past_promise, scored against the state's own published release calendar — a promise date is sharper than a learned rhythm. darkness_index is the mean staleness ratio over surfaces that answered. A surface that could not be fetched is listed as unreachable and excluded — vantage trouble is not withholding (nra.gov.cn in particular is known to gate some foreign vantages). A high index states that official surfaces are late against their own rhythm; it does not establish intent",
    "version": 1
  },
  "limitations": [
    "Publication delay, calendar changes and collection failure can resemble withholding; per-series state is required for interpretation."
  ],
  "related_signal_ids": [
    "china-econ",
    "cny-fix-gap",
    "believability"
  ]
}