HONG KONG, Feb 6 – Walt Disney Co removed an episode of the hit cartoon series “The Simpsons” that contains a reference to “forced labor camps” in China from its Hong Kong streaming service, according to a check of the service.
The episode “One angry Lisa,” which first aired on television in October, is not available on the U.S. company’s Disney Plus streaming service in Hong Kong, according to a Reuters review. The Financial Times first reported the episode’s absence.
Reuters could not establish when it was removed from the Hong Kong service and Disney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In the episode, Marge Simpson’s character is shown images of the Great Wall of China during an exercise class while her instructor says: “Behold the wonders of China. Bitcoin mines, forced labor camps where children make smartphones.”
China denies any suggestion that forced labor exists. Human rights groups and Western governments have long accused Beijing of abuses against members of the mainly Muslim Uighur ethnic minority in the western region of Xinjiang, including the use of forced labor in internment camps.
In 2021, Disney removed an episode of “The Simpsons” that referenced the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown when it first launched its Disney Plus service in Hong Kong.
The former British colony of Hong Kong has special freedoms under a “one country, two systems” formula agreed when it was returned to China in 1997, but local democracy activists say Beijing has been eroding those freedoms over the years.