Episode of the Simpsons visiting Tiananmen Square removed by Disney + in Hong Kong

An episode of the American animated series The Simpsons, in which the family visits Tiananmen Square in Beijing, was removed from the programming of the online video platform Disney + in Hong Kong.

The omission of this episode raises fears that censorship will become the norm in the financial center, as in neighboring mainland China.

Disney + began broadcasting in mid-November in Hong Kong, and viewers most familiar with the series were quick to note the absence of an episode dedicated to China.

This is the 12th episode of the 16th season, which was broadcast for the first time in 2005, in which the family travels to China in the hope of adopting a child.

During their stay, they visit Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, where pro-democracy demonstrations were bloody repressed in 1989.

In the cartoon, a sign reads “In this place, in 1989, nothing happened”, an ironic nod to the way in which Beijing has tried to erase the massacre recorded then from the collective memory.

This Monday, AFP consulted Disney + Hong Kong and they responded that the 11th and 13th episodes are available, but the 12th is not.

It is not clear if it was Disney + itself that withdrew this episode or if the authorities ordered it to do so.

In response to questions from AFP, the US entertainment giant declined to comment, as did the Hong Kong government.

The enclave long enjoyed artistic and political freedoms that do not exist in mainland China.

But to end the massive, sometimes violent, pro-democracy protests that rocked the territory in 2019, Beijing last year imposed a national security law that banned most dissent.

Last June, Hong Kong gave a Censorship Committee powers to ban any film that it believes may constitute a threat to national security.

Last week, Beijing’s appointed chief executive, Carrie Lam, pledged to “quickly fill the gaps” in the internet and adopt a regulation on “fake news.”