Photo Credit: Charito Yap / CC by 2.0
The high-profile German EDM star has been banned from China over liking a tweet. The liked tweet was from the South Park account advertising its most recent episode.
German DJ Zedd has been permanently banned from China over the move. Zedd tweeted about his ban on Friday, with his publicist Adam Guest at SATELLITE414 confirming the news.
“This is true, yes, but we don’t have any more info to give you at this time.”
The liked tweet was one from South Park’s official Twitter account. The tweet referenced an episode of the show called ‘Band in China,’ which highlights China’s strict take on censorship. The episode also lambasts American companies for overlooking human rights violations to do business there.
South Park’s creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone shared their sarcastic opinion of the ban on Twitter.
“Like the NBA, we welcome Chinese censors into our homes and into our hearts. We too love money more than freedom and democracy. Xi doesn’t look just like Winnie the Pooh at all. Tune into our 300th episode this Wednesday at 10! Long live the Great Communist Party of China! May this autumn’s sorghum harvest be bountiful! We good now China?”
Beijing responded to the episode by removing South Park on its Baidu search engine. The German embassy in Beijing did not comment on the banning. For now, it appears as though Zedd’s music is still available on QQ Music.
Several American companies have become ensnared in controversy over the last few weeks. The general manager of the Houston Rockets NBA team tweeted in support of Hong Kong, but quickly deleted the tweet. The NBA profusely apologized for the move as it drew criticism from Chinese state media, though not everyone was pleased with the league’s soft-spined decision.
Elsewhere, gaming company Blizzard stirred up controversy after they banned a player for expressing support for Hong Kong on a Hearthstone stream. Blizzard’s CEO later said the ban had nothing to do with pressure from China — though the player penalty was reduced and a cash prize returned.
Not even Apple was left out of the China/censorship argument. Apple recently took action to delete an app that allowed Hong Kong protestors to track police. Apple CEO Tim Cook also cooked up a convenient excuse, which few bought.