Adam Taylor comments on the latest moves by China’s Internet censors, which included blocking “The Big Bang Theory” from the country’s popular video streaming sites:
In some ways, the removal of the show is not so surprising. China is in the middle of a crackdown on pornography and other unsavory behavior online. The campaign, titled “Cleaning the Web” by the Chinese state, has seen some unorthodox targets, such as the e-books section of Sina.com.cn.
But “The Big Bang Theory” is hardly a scandalous show.
On IMDB’s parental guide, it receives a rating of 15 out of 50. And what’s really odd about the online TV show crackdown isn’t what they chose to take offline – it’s what they allowed to remain on. For example, “House of Cards” is still available online. That HBO political drama, very popular in China, has plenty of scenes of violence and sex. And Sunday, China’s CCTV began airing a translated version of “Game of Thrones,” a fantasy show that frequently shocks even hardened U.S. viewers with profanity, nudity and violence.
Adam Minter suspects this is really about driving more viewers to state TV:
The “Big Bang” ban most likely has less to do with content and more with competition. By licensing popular U.S. shows, China’s privately owned video streaming sites are stealing eyeballs and advertising dollars away from state-owned networks such as CCTV. “The most likely explanation is that ideology is just an excuse,” tweeted Zhou Xuanyi, a philosophy professor in Wuhan, on Sina Weibo. “The real reason is that the censors want some benefit if you’re going to be earning money on their turf.” Indeed, the Beijing News reported Monday that CCTV was already preparing a dubbed “green edition” of “Big Bang Theory” — minus “excessive content” — for broadcast on its own channels.
The Dish 