Hong Kong's censorship laws have seen media bosses and protesters alike jailed and now iconic series The Simpsons has fallen foul of China's crackdown on national security.
An episode from the long-running series's latest season that refers to forced labour camps in China is nowhere to be found on the Disney+ streaming service in Hong Kong amid growing censorship concerns in the city.
Hong Kong once boasted significant artistic and cultural freedoms compared to mainland China, but authorities have clamped down on dissent following democracy protests in 2019, including stepping up film censorship.
Episode two of the latest season included the line: "Behold the wonders of China. Bitcoin mines, forced labour camps where children make smartphones and romance."
One Angry Lisa, which first aired last October, could not be accessed on Disney+ using a Hong Kong connection but is available elsewhere, Agence-France Presse confirmed.
In 2021, Hong Kong passed censorship laws forbidding broadcasts that might breach a broad national security law that China has imposed on the city.
Censors have since ordered directors to make cuts to their films and refused permission for others to be shown.
While those rules do not cover streaming services, authorities have warned that online platforms are still subject to the national security law, which criminalises the broadly defined crimes of subversion, secession, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces.
Disney did not immediately provide comment while the Hong Kong government said it does not comment on decisions made by individual businesses.
Not the first time
It is the second time in two years that the streaming service's Hong Kong version has dropped a Simpsons episode that satirised China.
The previously affected episode showed the Simpsons visiting Beijing's Tiananmen Square — the site of a deadly 1989 crackdown on democracy protesters.
The cartoon shows a sign there that reads "On this site, in 1989, nothing happened", a satirical nod to China's campaign to purge memories of what happened.
It then shows Marge Simpson's sister Selma Bouvier standing before a tank, referencing the famous photo from the Tiananmen crackdown of a lone man standing in front of a tank.
The rest of the episode also satirised China in other ways with Selma travelling to China to adopt a female baby.
Homer even called the embalmed body of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong "a little angel that killed 50 million people".
The Simpsons, though, has a long history of satirising China but some other episodes have not been removed.
In 2000's Bart to the Future, Lisa Simpson succeeds Donald Trump as US president and ends up with incredible national debt.
Bart, in helping his sister to try and stall nations owed money, quips "what happened to you China, you used to be cool".
The Chinese representative shoots back in a fairly racist moment: "Hey China still cool, you pay later, later."
Bart was also infected with the "panda virus" in season 13, when a mosquito bites him after travelling all the way from China in a plastic toy that came with his Laffy meal at Krusty Burger.
ABC/AFP
