Fox
- Disney dropped a "Simpsons" episode from its streaming service in Hong Kong, the FT first reported.
- The episode, missing from Disney Plus, contained a reference to "forced labor camps" in China.
- Another Simpsons episode, referring to the Tiananmen Square massacre, was cut in Hong Kong in 2021.
Disney has scrubbed from its streaming service in Hong Kong an episode of "The Simpsons" that refers to "forced labor camps" in China, the Financial Times first reported Monday.
In the episode, entitled "One Angry Lisa," a character says: "Behold the wonders of China: Bitcoin mines, forced labor camps where children make smartphones."
The episode in question first aired in October but was not available to watch on Disney Plus in Hong Kong, according to the FT and Reuters.
It was unclear when the episode disappeared from Disney Plus in Hong Kong and whether the company cut the episode itself. It was also unclear whether the Hong Kong government played a role in the decision not to include the episode.
Disney didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment. The FT said the company declined its request for comment.
Representatives for the Hong Kong government didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
Beijing has sought to exert greater control over Hong Kong, a semiautonomous region of China, since pro-democracy protests erupted there in 2019.
The Chinese government has been accused of committing human rights abuses against the Uyghur, a Turkic Muslim minority ethnic group in the country's Xinjiang region. It's been accused among other things of conducting forced labor, surveillance, forced sterilization, and setting up re-education camps.
China has denied the accusations. Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said accusations of forced labor and genocide in Xinjiang were "the biggest lie of the century," per a transcript that Insider previously reported.
Disney cut another episode of The Simpsons from its streaming service in Hong Kong in 2021. The episode, entitled "Goo Goo Gai Pan," contains a joke about the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989, when Chinese state troops opened fire on unarmed pro-democracy protestors.