China blocks HBO after John Oliver criticises Xi Jinping

Less than a week after mentions of John Oliver were censored in China after the comedian criticised president Xi Jinping, the country has blocked HBO’s website.

Anti-censorship group Greatfire.org reports that the website for the American network (which hosts the comedian’s show Last Week Tonight), has been inaccessible since Saturday. The Guardian add that HBO Asia – which airs HBO content via a subscription service owned by Tencent – has also been blocked.

The censorship comes just days after China’s largest social media website, Weibo, blocked all mentions of Oliver. Attempts to post the TV personality’s name on the Twitter-like service have been met with an error message stating the post is a violation of “relevant laws and regulations.”

On last week’s episode of Last Week Tonight, Oliver dedicated almost 20 minutes to criticising Xi. The comedian started by lambasting the removal of presidential term limits in China, something which has permitted Xi to stay in power for the remainder of his life.

The British presenter went on to highlight the case of human rights activist Liu Xiaobo, who was deemed a criminal and died while serving an 11-year prison sentence for subversion in 2017. Like Oliver, mention of Liu has been censored on Weibo.

“Xi’s crackdown on human rights is apparently the harshest crackdown since Tiananmen square,” Oliver said. “[He] has clamped down noticeably on any form of dissident whatsoever.”

While also questioning the treatment of Muslim minority Uighurs, who face new restrictions implemented by the Chinese government, Oliver also made personal blows against Xi, calling the President a “creepy uncle who imprisons 800,000 people in his basement”.

It’s common for Internet activity to be censored in China with millions reportedly employed to swiftly remove posts considered politically incorrect.

The Independent has contacted HBO and Tencent for comment.