Disney+ has removed a 2005 episode from the 16th season of The Simpsons in China, according to The Hollywood Reporter. In the 12th episode of the season, titled “Goo Goo Gai Pan,” Homer takes his family to China, and they visit Tiananmen Square and read a placard that says, “On this site, in 1989, nothing happened.”
This episode was a reference to the 1989 massacre of pro-democracy student protestors, which has since been censored from public discourse. In recent years, Hong Kong has cracked down on its film industry, censoring those that violate China’s national security interests.
The move sparked outrage among the entertainment community against censorship and inequality in China’s new legislation. Hong Kong Netflix still features some pieces of content that go against these laws, such as Joe Piscatella’s (#chicagoGirl) Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower – a documentary following the Hong Kong student activist who led the country’s pro-democracy movement in 2014.
Following the implementation of the censorship law, Piscatella said, “The new film rules in Hong Kong will have a chilling effect,” via The Hollywood Reporter. One of the last vestiges of free speech in Hong Kong is now gone. The result is self-censorship by filmmakers who now have to question what might run afoul of the new rules and increased scrutiny by financiers and distributors who now must consider that very same question.”