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John Oliver Is Blocked By China After He Makes Fun Of Its President

John Oliver Is Blocked By China After He Makes Fun Of Its President

On Sunday’s “Last Week Tonight,” covering China and its President Xi Jinping, host John Oliver pointed out that Chinese internet users often liken Xi’s appearance to Winnie the Pooh.

Well, Xi is apparently very sensitive about this, and now the Chinese government has blocked Oliver and the show on the social media site Sina Weibo.

According to The Associated Press, attempts to post to Weibo with “John Oliver” or “Last Week Tonight” resulted in the message

“the content contains information that violates relevant laws and regulations.”

It’s unclear whether the move was specifically a result of the Winnie the Pooh dig. The episode covered a lot of criticism of Xi’s leadership, from imprisoning his political rivals to assigning citizens social credit scores, which punish people for not behaving in ways preferred by the state.

China is famous for censoring content that it finds objectionable, especially from foreign news and entertainment outlets. The “Last Week Tonight” segment on China has been viewed nearly 3.5 million times on YouTube.

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.