The alterations to the plot provoked in recent days the anger of Internet users on Chinese social networks, and the hashtag #FriendsCensored ended, with more than 60 million visits, as a trending topic on the Weibo social network with hundreds of comments that were removed hours later.
Most of them disagreed with the Chinese version, according to the South China Morning Post: “If they can’t air the full version, they better not air anything,” said one of the most popular posted on Weibo before disappearing.
“They’ve spent a fortune buying the rights (to the series) only to end up slammed for altering these scenes. What’s the point?”another Weibo user commented.
Some Internet users even called for a boycott of the censored version and shared links to download the original series, according to the Hong Kong newspaper.
The Chinese Government, which has a strong censorship system known as the “Great Firewall”has strengthened in recent years its control over what is published on the network with several laws that prohibit Internet users from publishing content that attempts against “national honor”, “disrupt the economic or social order” or intended to “overthrow the socialist system”.