Disney+ in Hong Kong drops 'Simpsons' episode with 'forced labour' mention

An episode of "The Simpsons" that refers to "forced labour camps" in China is nowhere to be found on the Disney+ streaming service in Hong Kong amid growing censorship concerns in the city.

Hong Kong once boasted significant artistic and cultural freedoms compared to mainland China, but authorities have clamped down on dissent following democracy protests in 2019, including stepping up film censorship.

Episode 2 of the U.S. animated hits' 34th season included the line: "Behold the wonders of China. Bitcoin mines, forced labour camps where children make smartphones, and romance."

"One Angry Lisa", which first aired last October, could not be accessed on Disney+ using a Hong Kong connection but is available elsewhere, AFP confirmed.

It is the second time in three years that the streaming service's Hong Kong version has dropped a Simpsons episode that satirised China.

The previously affected episode showed the Simpsons visiting Beijing's Tiananmen Square -- the site of a deadly 1989 crackdown on democracy protesters -- finding a sign there that read: "On this site, in 1989, nothing happened."

The Hong Kong government and Disney did not immediately provide comment.

In 2021, Hong Kong passed censorship laws forbidding broadcasts that might breach a broad national security law that China imposed on the city.

Censors have since ordered directors to make cuts to their films and refused permission for others to be shown.

While those rules do not cover streaming services, authorities have warned that online platforms are still subject to the national security law, which criminalises the broadly defined crimes of subversion, succession, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces.

In recent years, Hollywood has been accused of bending to China's censorship regime to tap into its vast consumer base and billion-dollar box office.

Beijing has long denied accusations of torture and forced labour in the far-western Xinjiang region, even as a recent United Nations report found the allegations credible.

Rights groups say more than a million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities are detained in what the U.S. State Department and others have said amounts to genocide.

In 2020, Disney came under fire for filming the live-action Mulan remake in Xinjiang, with local government agencies thanked in the credits.