China – Great Firewall Has New Target: The 34 Billion Views Of ‘Peppa Pig’

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Peppa Pig, the British cartoon pig that has become a global hit, has turned out to be the last target of Chinese censors as authorities fear it is being used to create a secret subculture.

On Sina Weibo, China's version of Twitter with four times as many users as the American versions, the #PeppaPig hashtag has by now a whopping 310 million hits. The cartoons itself were viewed some, wait for it, 34 billion times in China, making it one of the most recognizable characters.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Peppa Pig as a symbol of rebellion and anti-Communist resistance is the best thing I’ve read all year. <br><br>Made even more perfect by its accidental inversion of Orwell.<br><br> <a href="https://t.co/wCnqOETa15">https://t.co/wCnqOETa15</a></p>&mdash; Matthew Thompson (@mattuthompson) <a href="https://twitter.com/mattuthompson/status/991213823465017344?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 1, 2018</a></blockquote>

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But as of late, Chinese authorities are applying their ‘great firewall’ to clean up Peppa Pig. On Douyin, a video sharing platform in China, some 30,000 clips were deleted in a matter of 24 hours. Furthermore, the wildly popular hashtag #PeppaPig was also banned.

Related coverage: https://thegoldwater.com/news/23165-China-Weibo-400-Million-Users-Blocks-Gay-Content

According to the Global Times, the state-run tabloid newspaper, Peppa Pig is mostly used by ‘lowlifes and gangsters’, stating that those people “run counter to the mainstream value and are usually poorly educated with no stable job.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">i&#39;ve been saying this for years <a href="https://t.co/jijyjcImwB">https://t.co/jijyjcImwB</a></p>&mdash; the senate baby (@jon_snow_420) <a href="https://twitter.com/jon_snow_420/status/991297820052275201?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 1, 2018</a></blockquote>

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“They are unruly slackers roaming around and the antithesis of the young generation the Communist party tries to cultivate.”

Peppa Pig is very popular in China ever since its introduction in 2015 when it was first aired on state broadcaster CCTV. Both Beijing and Shanghai planned to open a Peppa Pig theme park next year.

Related coverage: https://thegoldwater.com/news/23046-China-Facial-Recognition-Cameras-Find-1-Criminal-In-60-000-Concert-Crowd

The problem however is that people (read criminals) who try to hide something simple make a Peppa Pig cartoon of their own, stuff it with messages to each other and upload it to a video website. Given the billion number of views and million number of videos online, unless you know which one to look for, it is indeed a perfect disguise.

Source:

http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1100136.shtml