Hong Kong Airline Pulls Family Guy Episode for Tiananmen Square Scene

Hong Kong's biggest airline, Cathay Pacific, has taken an episode of Family Guy off its in-flight entertainment after someone complained about a scene showing the Tiananmen Square crackdown. The episode, "Death Has a Shadow, " has a brief moment where Peter Griffin stands near a protester facing tanks in Beijing. This scene echoes a famous photo from the 1989 pro-democracy protests. China still censors talks about this event 35 years later. Cathay Pacific said they didn't agree with the show's content and removed the episode as soon as they could. They blame a third-party provider for the mix-up and are looking into it.

A travel website reported that a reader thought the episode might break Hong Kong's National Security Law. They said Cathay Pacific should stop politically sensitive content from spreading. This isn't the first time censorship has happened. In the past, Hong Kong held yearly candlelight vigils for the Tiananmen victims. But since 2020, people can get in trouble for organizing or going to these events. Discussing the Tiananmen Square incident is now banned under laws from both Beijing and Hong Kong's government. Streaming services like Disney+ have also removed episodes of The Simpsons that mention Tiananmen Square. Amazon Prime's series "Expats, " which has scenes of 2014 pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, was blocked in China this year too.

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