In yet another example of China's tightening grip over media content available online, Chinese users of streaming services reacted strongly to authorities' changing the plot of the show Friends which was aired last Friday and received more than 54 million views.
According to thousands of Chinese viewers who were quick to realize the difference between the original version of the 18-years old American show and the one aired in their country.
'Friends abridged' trended for a while at #1
— ? 田里的猹 (@melonconsumer) February 12, 2022
The official Chinese version of Friends has many LGBTQ-related characters cut and the subtitles changed the meaning of the dialogue. Many fans are upset pic.twitter.com/9NATQgqPAG
Using the hashtag #FriendsCensored, viewers highlighted a major effort to hide the plotline that appears in the first episode of season 1, where one of the main characters discusses divorcing his wife who announces she is lesbian.
However, Chinese streaming services seem to hide the plot and replace it with others where there is no mention of a same-sex relationship.
Even “Friends” are censored in China. All major video sites started streaming “Friends” last night. Now #friendscensored is the top hashtag on Weibo. Obviously it was wrong that Ross and Carol were divorced because Carol fell in love with a woman. And sperm shouldn’t be mentioned pic.twitter.com/ucErvdHLnB
— Li Yuan (@LiYuan6) February 11, 2022
Amongst the streaming services that have purchased the popular show Friends are Tencent, Bilibili, Youku, Sohu and iQiyi.
It is worth noting that same-sex relationships were decriminalized in China in 1997, but they continue to face numerous social and legal challenges in the country.
