Disney pulls Simpsons episode from Disney+ streaming service in Hong Kong mentioning compelled labor camps in China

Disney has eliminated an episode of “The Simpsons” that mentions China’s human rights abuses from the leisure firm’s streaming platform in Hong Kong, the Financial Times stories. 

The episode, titled “One Angry Lisa,” contains a joke about “compelled labor camps the place kids make smartphones” in China. It is now not out there on Disney+ in Hong Kong, Reuters confirmed. 

In the episode, the character Marge Simpson rides a Peloton-style bike with an teacher whose backdrop is the Great Wall of China. “Today our pedal odyssey will take us on the Great Wall of China,” the teacher says. “Behold, the wonders of China. Bitcoin mines, compelled labor camps the place kids make smartphones and romance.”

It’s unclear when the episode, which first aired on TV within the U.S. in October, was taken down. Disney didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark. 

It’s the second Simpsons episode that Disney has pulled from its streaming platform in Hong Kong. In 2021, the corporate took down an episode that contained a reference to the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing. 

The transfer, which drew accusations of self-censorship, got here after Hong Kong launched a nationwide safety legislation in 2020 that bans “sedition, secession and subversion” in opposition to the Chinese authorities. 

Human rights activists have accused China of imprisoning no less than 1 million Uyghurs and different members of ethnic minority teams in detention camps the place many have mentioned they have been tortured, sexually assaulted, and compelled to desert their language and faith. In 2021, the U.S. banned all imports from the Xinjiang area in northwestern China that’s dwelling to the teams. 

“Forced labor is an atrocious human rights abuse that’s utterly in opposition to the values that all of us share,” appearing Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan mentioned on the time.

—The Associated Press contributed to this report.