In case you missed it, “Band in China,” last week’s episode of “South Park” was characteristically excellent. It was also highly, highly problematic — for the Chinese government, that is. China was so offended, in fact, that they’ve tried to purge it from Chinese media.
Here's how China reacted to that #SouthPark episode "Band in China": https://t.co/TEvuGAf02S
— Hollywood Reporter (@THR) October 7, 2019
More from the Hollywood Reporter:
The most recent episode of South Park, “Band in China,” has been generating loads of media attention for its sharp critique of the way Hollywood tends to shape its content to avoid offending Chinese government censors in any way whatsoever.
Now, those very same government censors, in the real world, have lashed back at South Park by deleting virtually every clip, episode and online discussion of the show from Chinese streaming services, social media and even fan pages.
A cursory perusal through China’s highly regulated Internet landscape shows the show conspicuously absent everywhere it recently had a presence. A search of the Twitter-like social media service Weibo turns up not a single mention of South Park among the billions of past posts. On streaming service Youku, owned by Internet giant Alibaba, all links to clips, episodes and even full seasons of the show are now dead.
And on Baidu’s Tieba, China’s largest online discussions platform, the threads and sub-threads related to South Park are nonfunctional. If users manually type in the URL for what was formerly the South Park thread, a message appears saying that, “According to the relevant law and regulation, this section is temporarily not open.”
The draconian response is par for the course for China’s authoritarian government, which has even been known to aggressively censor Winnie the Pooh, because some local Internet users had affectionately taken to comparing Chinese president Xi Jinping to the character.
It should come as no surprise to those familiar with “South Park” that its creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are absolutely devastated. How devastated? This devastated:
Watch the full episode – https://t.co/oktKSJdI9i@THR article – https://t.co/nXrtmnwCJB pic.twitter.com/Xj5a1yE2eL
— South Park (@SouthPark) October 7, 2019
Be still our hearts.
HAHAHAHAHA https://t.co/6jvB2e4ioV
— Zelda A. Gabriel (@ZeldaAGabriel) October 7, 2019
Nailed it… pic.twitter.com/V9Jt3Fva0X
— I'm supposed to be whistle-blowing right now… (@hereforthejava) October 7, 2019
This statement in gif form… pic.twitter.com/5c277Wh89V
— Andrew Follett (@AndrewCFollett) October 7, 2019
Oh South Park. lol You did it again!
Nice.— Rob Wob (@ra_wob) October 7, 2019
This is why you lot are the best
— JJ Hunt (@OfficialJJHunt) October 7, 2019
I love you guys
— Shalin?? (@realShaySmooth) October 7, 2019
MY GOD. I LOVE TREY PARKER AND MATT STONE. pic.twitter.com/wo0T0OYI34
— Krystle Baker (@TarheelKrystle) October 7, 2019
I love the South Park guys so much. This is how you rep America. https://t.co/ZTa2yyO92A
— (((AG))) (@AG_Conservative) October 7, 2019
Take note, NBA.
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