Chinese authorities block HBO website following John Oliver's critical segment
Chinese authorities have blocked HBO’s website in China following a segment on the “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” program, which criticised Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Chinese authorities have blocked HBO’s website in China following a program which mocked the Chinese President.
The 20-minute segment, which aired during the June 17 episode of the US comedy program, focused on Xi Jinping and the Chinese government and included mentions of the Belt and Road initiative, the Social Credit Score and online censorship.
In the segment, Oliver criticised Xi for banning references to the cartoon character Winnie the Pooh, which has been used to mock the Chinese president.
HBO.com, which provides program information but does not stream content, was unavailable to internet users in China on Tuesday, and Weibo searches were blocking users from sending posts with “John Oliver” in them, according to Bloomberg.
The report claims searches of the program and host’s names are still working on both Weibo and Baidu, however, there are no mentions of the recent segment, leading to speculation these may have been removed.
The HBO Asia website is unaffected and is available to Chinese internet users.