Beijing’s government continues its war against ‘offline’ behaviour
Once again, Beijing’s censorship axe has hit the historic US TV series FRIENDS, after they censored appearances by Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber and BTS in the 2021 reunion. And this time, the series suffered censorship in the parts about sex and the LGBT+ community.
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The streaming platforms Tecente, Youku and Bilibili have started to broadcast episodes of the first season of FRIENDS, but without airing them in their full version. In fact, among the various censorships, you can notice the moment when Ross reveals that his ex-wife Carol is a lesbian.
This is not an isolated case: in the People’s Republic of China, the most popular films and television series are censored before being aired. Even the film ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ (2019) about the life of the great singer Freddy Mercury has been censored for its sexual orientation, but not even last week did the Beijing government have to backtrack and reinstate the real ending of ‘Fight Club’ after numerous social protests.
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The Chinese government’s censorship of any content deemed by the authorities to be ‘not in line’ with the government’s indications or – again according to Beijing – to endanger the morality of its citizens began in 2015 and recently lashed out at the new male generation, considered too effeminate.