Parody Gone Wrong: China Blocks HBO after John Oliver Mocks Xi

HBO’s website is not operational in China anymore after censors on Weibo banned mentions of John Oliver following the British comedian’s parody of Chinese president Xi Jinping.  

As per Greatfire.org, the anti-censorship and monitoring group, HBO’s website was completely blocked within China as of Saturday, days after media reports emerged that Weibo, a Chinese microblogging website, had censored new posts mentioning Oliver or his HBO show ‘Last Week Tonight’.

“China: the country responsible for huge technological advances but it still can’t seem to get pandas to f***,” Oliver said at the start of the show – that is causing the problems, South China Morning Post reports.

While the show goes on Oliver called Xi the “creepy uncle who imprisons 800,000 people in his basement.”

“China is becoming more authoritarian just as it has major plans for expansion onto the world stage,” he said as the segment neared an end.

The microblogging site also blocked searches for the show’s Chinese name, Shangzhou jinye xiu, The Guardian reports.

As per the newspaper, attempts to access HBO’s website from within China were unsuccessful on Monday. The website for HBO Asia, a Singapore-based broadcast network that airs HBO content in China through Dingjijuchang, a Tencent TV subscription service, also appeared to be blocked. The subscription does not include all HBO shows.