Disney Removes ‘Simpsons’ Episode Referencing ‘Forced Labor’ for Viewers in Hong Kong

Photo by Phil McCarten/Invision for the Television Academy/AP Images

Disney removed an episode of The Simpsons for its streaming viewers in Hong Kong.

According to Axios, the company removed the episode titled One Angry Lisa which originally aired in October 2022. The episode mentions “forced labor camps” in China and is unavailable for viewers in Hong Kong solely for the mention of the camps, according to the report:

[The episode] features character Marge Simpson at an exercise class with China’s Great Wall on the screen behind her as her instructor says: “Behold the wonders of China. Bitcoin mines, forced labor camps where children make smartphones.”

A source familiar with the situation stressed that airing the episode would’ve put Disney at odds with the sweeping national security law passed by Chinese officials in 2020 that curbs many basic freedoms — most notably, speech.

China has had longstanding rules on the type of content they allow in their country and TV shows and films are not immune to the regulations. Just last month, China lifted the ban on Marvel films that had been in effect since 2019. Media observers have speculated that the 2019 ban was the result of “LGBTQ+ characters and symbols of US patriotism” that appear in various Marvel films.

It has long been known that the region of Xinjiang, China is home to a labour camp for Muslim minorities known as Uyghurs — who have been subjected to various human rights abuses.