China's 'House of Cards' Fans Revolt Online Over Fears of More Censorship

The swelling ranks of Chinese fans of streamed Hollywood TV shows, such as The Walking Dead and House of Cards, have expressed outrage at recently issued regulations requiring tighter censorship for all streaming video in China.

The broadcast watchdog, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT), said in a statement on its website last month that online companies would have to closely vet content before making it available to stream.

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A survey on Sina Weibo found that 130,153 surveyed users of the micro-blogging service did not want censors to decide which Western television series they could watch.

We should be free to choose what we want to watch and experience multiple cultures, wrote one Weibo user.

Just 6,476 people backed new guidelines that require regulatory approval before Western series -- which now include Saturday Night Live, The Ellen DeGeneres Show and the Danish political drama Borgen --can appear on a Chinese online video website, with some arguing they were too open and could affect domestic culture.

In a report on the Xinhua government news agency, online companies such as Sohu ruled out the possibility that shows like The Walking Dead and Masters of Sex would be banned.

They insisted that many of the censorship rules were already in place, and said the statement on the government website merely reiterated the status quo.

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"Although American TV series are strictly scrutinized in China, most of those currently available to the public have already been approved," a Sohu.com source told Xinhua.

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China's 'House of Cards' Fans Revolt Online Over Fears of More Censorship