History Main / BannedInChina

** Hasbro's decision to renew their contract with Discovery Family through 2025 has resulted in a tantamount ban on ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyRainbowRoadtrip'' in many countries such as Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Norway, Switzerland, and Turkey, thus preventing the film from getting dubs in any of the languages spoken in those regions.

** Hasbro's decision to renew their contract with Discovery Family through 2025 has resulted in a tantamount ban on ''MyLittlePonyRainbowRoadtrip'' in many countries such aa Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Norway, Switzerland, and Turkey, thus preventing the film from getting dubs in any of the languages spoken in those regions.

* Due to [[UsefulNotes/TheIndoPakistanConflict Pakistan's decades-long]] [[UsefulNotes/TheKashmirQuestion conflict with India]], [[{{UsefulNotes/Bollywood}} Indian]] [[UsefulNotes/TheOtherwoods movies]] in general were banned from distribution in the country. Though the ban wasn't enforced too strictly (judging by the popularity of [[BollywoodMovies Hindi-language films]] in Pakistan), and it was eventually lifted in 2008 -- That was until February 2019, [[https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/02/pakistan-bans-bollywood-films-india-tensions-190227054348092.html when all Indian films were again banned in Pakistan because of]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_India-Pakistan_border_skirmishes then-recent military clashes along the border]].

* Due to the book's implicit criticism of collectivization and nationalism and its praise of individuality, the original Russian text of ''Literature/DoctorZhivago'' was only available to Russian expatriates around the world until the collapse of the Soviet Union. The author, Boris Pasternak, was also forced to renounce the UsefulNotes/NobelPrizeInLiterature under threat of him and his loved ones getting deported or worse.

* BoysLove and GirlsLove genre manga are banned as LGBTQ+ activities are illegal in the country.

* The current Russian government blacklists Internet resources advocating drugs, suicide, and terrorism, ostensibly to [[ThinkOfTheChildren protect the children]]. It is quite often that the notice is served to Website/LiveJournal about a repost, while the original site goes by scot-free. What qualifies as advocating suicide? [[Advertising/DumbWaysToDie A PSA about railway safety.]]

* As with Kuwait, the ''Manga/DemonSlayer'' -- ''To the Swordsmith Village'' movie was banned due to a nude scene where Mitsuri takes a shower in a hot spring.

* The ''Manga/DemonSlayer'' -- ''To the Swordsmith Village'' movie was banned due to a nude scene where Mitsuri takes a shower in a hot spring.

* ''[[Film/TheEvilDead1981 The Evil Dead]]'' was banned in Iceland, Ireland, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and West Germany for its extreme violence and gore. It was eventually released uncensored in 2001 in the UK. Contrary to popular belief, it was never part of the VideoNasties list.

* A lesbian "kiss" was cut from the ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E1DeepBreath ''Deep Breath'']] when it aired in Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, although the is available uncut for streaming on BBC Player in Malaysia and Singapore. The hot air balloon made of human skin in the same episode was apparently just fine, though.

* ''VideoGame/Fallout3'' was initially refused classification in Australia for drug use, while Microsoft refused to allow the UsefulNotes/Xbox360 version to be sold in India likely due to the appearance of mutated cattle called [[http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Brahmin_(Fallout_3) Brahmin]] possibly being offensive to Hindus. It was eventually released in the former with a [=MA15+=] rating after the aforementioned drug was changed from morphine to the generically named "Med-X", a change made to all versions. Japan almost banned it due to "The Power of the Atom" sidequest, which gave the main character the option to either disarm or detonate a nuclear bomb worshipped by residents of a town, but ultimately gave it a "Z" (Adults Only) rating after the detonation option was disabled.

* During the UsefulNotes/ColdWar there was the concept of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finlandization Finlandization.]] This meant that some films were banned in Finland on purely political grounds. ''Film/{{RedDawn|1984}}'' was one of them, along with ''Literature/OneDayInTheLifeOfIvanDenisovich'', the Creator/JamesCagney film ''Film/OneTwoThree'', and ''Born American'' (Renny Harlin's debut). Beyond that, Finland also had a censorship comparable to Sweden and Norway, which forbade movies featuring an excessive amount of bloodshed, brutality, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and martial arts.]]

* Back in the early 2000s, India threatened to ban the UsefulNotes/MicrosoftWindows operating system because their time zone selection map [[http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2003/08/22/54679.aspx showed]] [[DisproportionateRetribution the India/Pakistan border according to the U.N. maps instead of their own maps]].

* ''Videogame/MortalKombat11'' was banned, although not publicly, for over-the-top gory violence and communist references. Most likely the latter, as the previous ''Mortal Kombat'' games and the mobile game isn't banned.

** Website/FanFictionDotNet, also because it seems "abusive". As of 2021, this ban has been lifted.
* Website/{{Newgrounds}} was banned in 2010 and has stayed that way since due to the total freedom and lack of filtering of offensive and NSFW content.

* "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalag_fiction Stalag fiction]]", a genre of pornographic [[DimeNovel Dime Novels]] set in Nazi concentration camps, was banned by the government following the trial of Adolf Eichmann, after becoming bizarrely popular there during TheFifties.

** In 2012, a right wing group complained to the Matsue city assembly to ban the manga from school libraries because it contained "unsupported" depictions of Japanese atrocities. The city assembly refused to act, but the local school board subsequently moved all copies in local elementary and middle schools to closed shelves, effectively stopping students from reading the work at school. When this action became widely known nationally in 2013, there was a large public outcry. In the ensuing controversy, Japan's education minister commented that he found the ban to be appropriate, though he took no actions himself. In the end, the school board reconvened and unanimously decided to lift the ban, though it is left it to individual schools to decide how they wanted to treat the books.

* Historian Saburo Ienaga holds the distinction of being the complainant in the longest civil trial in any country on record. In 1965, he sued the Japanese education ministry over [[PoliticallyCorrectHistory its refusal to approve to his history book, which did not shy away from depicting war-time atrocities by the Japanese]]. Ienaga and his lawyers argued that the refusal to approve the book constituted censorship, though there was never any ban on the sale of the book, just on its use as an official textbook in schools. In 1997, the Supreme Court finally ruled that although no censorship had taken place, the ministry had nonetheless abused its discretion in not approving the book.

* Most WesternAnimation that features human characters with FourFingeredHands often have trouble making it past Japanese censors due to the social stigma surrounding those with missing fingers, such as Yakuza members. A major exception to this Mickey Mouse and other Disney characters, as Disney holds its own strict "no-editing" policy for foreign distribution similar to Studio Ghibli.

* ''Film/{{Plane}}'' got a lot of flak from Senator Robin Padilla who demanded the film to be banned, a sentiment shared by both Senate President Miguel Zubiri and Senator Ronald dela Rosa. Though the Directors' Guild of the Philippines (DGIP) [[https://www.philstar.com/entertainment/2023/02/20/2246350/why-trolls-historical-revisionism-allowed-filipino-directors-question-banning-hollywood-film-plane opposed the proposed ban]] because it's nothing but an overreaction to a mindless B-movie and viewers have the choice to either watch the movie or ignore it. To summarize, the premise is about a commercial airliner crashing into the island of Jolo which is depicted as a lawless region run by militias and insurgents, and both the Philippine government and its military are too terrified to even send help (the latter having apparently withdrew from the island beforehand), forcing Scarsdale to hire mercenaries to initiate search-and-rescue operations instead.

* ''Manga/TokyoGhoul'' was banned due to the ghouls committing cannibalism. It is worth noting that before the banning of anime, the Tokyo Ghoul fandom in Russia was infamous for its toxicity, which gave rise to the Dead Inside subculture. Several Tokyo Ghoul fans are edgy teenagers known on the Russian Internet for romanticizing maniacs and suicide, for which they are often ridiculed in memes.

** [[Music/DongBangShinKi TVXQ's]] "Mirotic" was [[http://www.allkpop.com/2008/11/tvxq_banned_from_korea was deemed harmful to minors]] because of its "explicit lyrics". Said explicit lyrics consisted of "I got you under my skin". Subsequently, all albums featuring the song were deemed with an "inappropriate for minors" sign, and a clean version of the song was released, with its lyrics changed to "I got you under my ''sky''".

* ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' was banned because of the presence of casinos (including the BettingMiniGame) and brothels (including strippers and OptionalSexualEncounter, although the latter case is fade to black), both are plot important place. However, the digital versions aren't banned.

[[AC:WebComics]]

[[AC:Live-Action TV]]
* An episode of ''Series/LastWeekTonightWithJohnOliver'' critical of Modi was not aired by streaming service Disney+ Hotstar, which airs the show in India. Oliver would later criticize Hotstar's practices on his show, although he displayed greater offense for the same service (which is owned by Disney) censoring a "factually accurate" joke from another episode about Donald Duck having a corkscrew penis.

* Same channel ''2x2'' had announced an intention to withdraw ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' Season 28 episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS28E18LookingForMrGoodbart Looking for Mr. Goodbart]]" within days of its premiere in USA, where Homer plays a ''VideoGame/PokemonGo'' parody during a church sermon, due to the arrest and suspended conviction of [=YouTuber=] Ruslan Sokolovsky for filming himself doing just that (Russia has a federal blasphemy law passed after Pussy Riot incident). In fact, Russia threatened to ban anything to do with ''Pokémon Go'' after the event, although the game has not yet been banned. They ended up broadcasting it anyway years later with the scene cut.

* ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'' was temporarily banned after two children were inspired to jump off a balcony and broke their legs.

In RealLife this is an EnforcedTrope. Compare NewMediaAreEvil, NoSwastikas, MediaWatchdog, MoralGuardians, and ValuesDissonance. {{Bowdlerization}} can happen if the government requires substantial content editing before allowing the work to be imported.

* ''Rocketman'' (2019) was banned in Samoa because of a gay sex scene that is considered culturally incompatible in Samoa. ''Film/{{Milk}}'', which is a biographical depiction of gay activist UsefulNotes/HarveyMilk, was also banned.

* ''[[Music/GiuseppeVerdi Un ballo in maschera]]'' was not performed in Sweden until the 1920s. When it was finally allowed there, it was [[AmericansHateTingle detested because of its historical inaccuracy]].

* ''VideoGame/LuckBeALandlord'' is [[https://blog.trampolinetales.com/luck-be-a-landlord-is-now-banned-in-13-countries-on-the-google-play-store/ banned from the Google Play Store]] in the UAE, Algeria, Iran, Jordan, South Korea, Libya, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, and Yemen for violating their gambling policies.

* As of May 2012, courts ordered various [=ISPs=] to block Vimeo [[DigitalPiracyIsEvil along with The Pirate Bay and the late Kickasstorrents]].

[[AC:AnimeAndManga]]
* Many anime featuring a girl as a protagonist, including ''Anime/CreamyMamiTheMagicAngel'', ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'', ''Manga/SugarSugarRune'', ''[[Anime/OjamajoDoremi Magical DoReMi]]'' [[note]][[UnfinishedDub only the first three seasons were dubbed in Arabic]] and aired in Spacetoon[[/note]], and ''Anime/PuniPuniPoemy'', have been banned outright (or [[NoExportForYou never got an official release]]) in Saudi Arabia (and other Arabic-speaking countries) over concerns about the promotion of Zionism, sexual scenes and [[ValuesDissonance any elements featuring within the series that are against the Islamic law]]. ''Franchise/SailorMoon'' never got an official release in these countries (Saudi Arabia included) until Netflix announced that they will release ''Anime/SailorMoonEternal'' to these countries [[LateExportForYou in 2021]] over the fears of the franchise getting an outright ban from Saudi Arabia due to that aforementioned reason above.

It should be noted that Albania was the most repressed country in Europe and also was one of the isolated countries in the world until TheNineties (especially under Enver Hoxha). The country followed the Stalinist style, thus it banned anything foreign, banned international travel, [[IllegalReligion forbade religion]] (with atheism in place of Islam or Christianity) and outlawed private property.

The Thai government has banned nearly every rendition of ''Anna and the King of Siam'' and ''Theatre/TheKingAndI'' ever made because the King of Siam, who is culturally seen as a divine being, is depicted as a flawed human being in that story. What's worse is that no matter how much the filmmakers rework the story, it ''always'' somehow ends up getting banned in that country. The fundamental problem here is that no matter how respectfully and positively modern filmmakers may portray the King, the basic story still implies that Thailand is a backwards country filled with people who need someone from the West to civilize them.

* Taiwanese indie fighting game ''VideoGame/FightOfGods'' is banned in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand because its premise, a fighting game where various deities and prophets such as Jesus and Buddha were playable characters, was considered offensive. In Malaysia's case, it resulted in the ''entire UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} store'' being blocked for 24 hours (and due to poor communication, the ban came into effect four hours after Valve has quietly pulled the game from the country's storefront). Ironically, Singaporean media was one of the many foreign news outlets who ridiculed Malaysia when they first banned it, even publishing a side article on why Singapore will never ban the game.

* ''VideoGame/{{Bully}}'' has been banned because of its depictions of school violence. Amazingly, this one was actually enforced, as UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} didn't sell the game (or any package that contains it) in Brazil, until in 2016, it came back.