Streaming videos in China are about to get a lot more tame: the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT), a media regulator, announced new guidelines that prohibit depictions of sexual activities ranging from extramarital affairs to sexual abuse. The new restrictions, reportedly published in SAPPRFT’s circular, will also prohibit story lines involving kidnapping, gambling and violent crimes.
While some of the banned activities are quite specific (like murder), others are more vague, like too much touching. Websites with offending videos are required to cut or delete them and remove explicit headlines.
Opponents to the new regulations argue that once all of the prohibited content is cut, there may be little left to view. The Hollywood Reporter notes that it’s unclear what this will mean for American programs that stream in China, like Game of Thrones, which hardly goes five minutes without depicting sex or violence to some degree.
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