- Title: China censors South Park after China episode
- Date: 8th October 2019
- Summary: SOCIAL MEDIA SITE WEIBO SEARCH BOX / THE WORDS "SOUTH PARK" BEING TYPED IN CHINESE/NEW PAGE POPPING UP SHOWING NO RESULTS FOUND PAGE SHOWING NO RESULTS FOUND TO SEARCH FOR "SOUTH PARK" IN CHINESE ON WEIBO
- Embargoed: 22nd October 2019 12:51
- Keywords: South Park China Censorship NBA Daryl Morey Houston Rockets
- Location: BEIJING, CHINA/INTERNET
- City: BEIJING, CHINA/INTERNET
- Country: China
- Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment,Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA002B08IXXJ
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: China's censors moved to ban the U.S. cartoon "South Park" from the internet after an episode satirising Beijing's policies on free speech aired.
The "Band in China" episode, released on Oct. 2, particularly made fun of efforts by Hollywood to shape its movie and television content in recent years to avoid angering censors in the vast Chinese market.
Several residents in Beijing told Reuters on Tuesday (October 8) they found the censorship understandable, but had never seen or heard of the show.
A Reuters search online showed that iQiyi and Youku Tudou, two Chinese video streaming sites, both listed episodes of South Park available to view, but the actual episodes involved did not play when requested. Searching for the show's name on the hugely popular twitter-like social media site, Sina Weibo did not yield any results.
"South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone released a mocking "official apology to China" on Twitter.
"Like the NBA, we welcome the Chinese censors into our homes and into our hearts. We too love money more than freedom," it read.
When asked about the "apology" from Parker and Stone, China's foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters that he knew nothing about this situation.
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