History Main / CensorshipBureau

A self-governing body with a censorship code, most visible (and most likely to receive mention) when that code is so draconian and unreasonable in its restrictions that it cripples an entire artistic medium. It usually comes about due to the pleas of the MoralGuardians and {{Media Watchdog}}s, but sometimes, it will come about due to some other circumstances (''e.g.'' the beliefs of a specific corporation). Some of these were created in fear of an even ''more'' draconian code being forced on the medium from outside. These are usually the organisations responsible for defining and enforcing UsefulNotes/MediaClassifications.

* UsefulNotes/TheComicsCode, as outlined in its own article, was a very restrictive censorship bureau enacted in response to a [[MoralGuardians moral panic]] about violent or suggestive comic books. It greatly reduced the range of possible plots in an effort to avoid EvilIsCool, but this meant [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks the typical plot]] was something like "dinosaurs in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII" or "ComicBook/JimmyOlsen switching brains with a gorilla" (which happened ''[[http://superdickery.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=31&Itemid=47 twice]]''). Creator/StanLee would help to put the Comics Code out of commission by simply ignoring them (Marvel was requested by the Department of Health to do a story about drug abuse; the CCA refused to allow it, but Marvel published the comic anyway without their seal), and inspiring other comic artists to follow suit.

* The "Hays Office" was a censorship bureau for American films during UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfHollywood. It was established in 1922 as the movie industry's answer to state censorship initiatives, but UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode wasn't much enforced until 1933. The office would not be dissolved until 1968.

* Starting in 1986, Creator/{{Nintendo}} of America leaned on third-party publishers to remove all references to religion, drugs, alcohol, and adult situations from their games. They enforced this with the "Nintendo Seal of Quality" -- although it was created to avoid UsefulNotes/{{Shovelware}} on their system, they could withhold it from any game that didn't meet their moral standards as well. Without the seal, developers wouldn't have access to the [[CopyProtection patented game cartridges]] for the system. This was largely in response to very powerful MoralGuardians in TheEighties and the emergence of the trope UltraSuperDeathGoreFestChainsawer3000 -- after that, the ESRB was established to rate video games. Sega wouldn't let Nintendo forget, though, and its marketing slapped a "kiddie" label on Nintendo that [[NeverLiveItDown the company still can't shake]], even after the Platform/NintendoSwitch became the console that more sexually explicit Japanese games were released uncensored on.

[[folder:Films]]

[[folder:Live Action -- Films]]

[[folder:Live Action -- TV Series]]
* The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is the American government entity which effectively owns the TV and radio airwaves, and as such, it has a lot of say in what can be shown there. Although it can't file criminal charges, it can levy very large fines. It doesn't even ''publish'' a list of its standards--in this department, it makes its decisions on the basis of precedent through a quasi-judicial process[[note]]Please note that this method is entirely acceptable in American administrative law. Under the Administrative Procedure Act and the [[UsefulNotes/AmericanCourts Supreme Court]]'s jurisprudence, an administrative agency like the FCC is permitted to develop its law through the quasi-legislative process of administrative rulemaking or the quasi-judicial process of administrative adjudication. Adjudication is a ''lot'' less work than rulemaking, and also is more suited to fields where there are a lot of judgment calls and context-dependent issues and shades of gray. The FCC is not the only agency to operate this way; the biggest agency to rely on adjudicative processes is actually the National Labor Relations Board. Agencies don't have to do just one thing, either: the FCC uses rulemaking on other matters, like technical standards, licensing requirements for broadcasters, and unexpected stuff like 911 services, but decided to use adjudicative processes for decency standards because of the difficulty in developing clear rules that didn't lead to absurdity.[[/note]]--so a lot of works rely on guesswork. One of its most famous punishments was a $325,000 fine for Music/JanetJackson flashing the audience at the 2004 UsefulNotes/SuperBowl; but the record is $1.2 million, for a Creator/{{FOX}} reality show called ''Married by America'' in which someone licked whipped cream off a woman's censored nipples.
* The Office of Communications (Ofcom) plays a similar role in the UK, although it acts more as a consumer protection entity as well, addressing things like lying to viewers and showing porn to people who don't want it.
[[/folder]]

* Starting in 1986, Creator/{{Nintendo}} of America leaned on third-party publishers to remove all references to religion, drugs, alcohol, and adult situations from their games. They enforced this with the "Nintendo Seal of Quality" -- although it was created to avoid UsefulNotes/{{Shovelware}} on their system, they could withhold it from any game that didn't meet their moral standards as well. Without the seal, developers wouldn't have access to the [[CopyProtection patented game cartridges]] for the system. This was largely in response to very powerful MoralGuardians in TheEighties and the emergence of the trope UltraSuperDeathGoreFestChainsawer3000 -- after that, the ESRB was established to rate video games. Sega wouldn't let Nintendo forget, though, and its marketing slapped a "kiddie" label on Nintendo that [[NeverLiveItDown the company still can't shake]], even after the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch became the console that more sexually explicit Japanese games were released uncensored on.

* Towards the end of TheNewTens, Creator/SonyInteractiveEntertainment has started imposing a vague set of restrictions on sexual content in games released on UsefulNotes/PlayStation consoles. The most obvious games affected by this were explicit VisualNovels, a number of which were ironically released on UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch uncut, while the [=PS4=] version had its content {{Bowdlerized}}. Meanwhile, the most visible game altered has been ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry5'', which has the nudity of one of its bosses censored in the [=PS4=] version but untouched on other platforms it came out on.

* UsefulNotes/GosKino censored many Soviet films, such as those of Creator/AndreiKonchalovsky and Creator/AndreiTarkovsky.

* UsefulNotes/{{Walmart}} refuses to stock [=CDs=] with a Parental Advisory label [[DoubleStandard (despite selling M-rated video games and R-rated movies)]]. Since Walmart is the world's largest retailer, this causes many artists to make clean versions of their music, even if they wouldn't do so otherwise.

* The Youth Ordinance Bill, presented to the Tokyo City Government was passed to stop children from purchasing what the government believes to be or exactly like porn( works depicting relationships that would be illegal in real life without outright condemning them) by making them 18+ only.

* The Youth Ordinance Bill, presented to the Tokyo City Government was passed to [[Moral Guardians|stop children from purchasing what the government believes to be or exactly like porn]]( works depicting relationships that would be illegal in real life without outright condemning them) by making them 18+ only.

* The Tokyo city government passed the Youth Ordinance Bill as an attempt to stop children from buying porn (or at least what the government thinks is porn). It does so by identifying "sexually deviant" anime and manga and cutting their publishers off from other organizations' financial backing. Pornograhpic works since then will use tiny {{Censor Box}}es over the naughty bits, but not monster parts; this is the phenomenon that led to the trope AllAnimeIsNaughtyTentacles.

A self-governing body with a censorship code, most visible (and most likely to receive mention) when that code is so draconian and unreasonable in its restrictions that it cripples an entire artistic medium. It usually comes about due to the pleas of the MoralGuardians and {{Media Watchdog}}s, but sometimes, it will come about due to some other circumstances (''e.g.'' the beliefs of a specific corporation). Some of these were created in fear of an even ''more'' draconian code being forced on the medium from outside.

* Most Roman emperors would censor things strictly, but a key exception was the first, UsefulNotes/JuliusCaesar, who considered his arch-enemy Marcus Porcius Cato something of a WorthyOpponent and refused to censor his literature, even when it was outright critical of him.

[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movie_ratings This article]] from [[Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} The Other Wiki]] lists government media rating organizations from around the world.

->''"It's my job to protect you, the viewer, from reality."''
-->-- '''The Creator/{{FOX}} Censor''', ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''

* UsefulNotes/TheComicsCode, as outlined in its own article, was a very restrictive censorship bureau enacted in response to a [[MoralGuardians moral panic]] about violent or suggestive comic books. It greatly reduced the range of possible plots in an effort to avoid EvilIsCool, but this meant [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks the typical plot]] was something like "dinosaurs in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII" or "ComicBook/JimmyOlsen switching brains with a gorilla" (which happened ''[[http://superdickery.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=31&Itemid=47 twice]]''). Creator/StanLee would help to put the Comics Code out of commission by simply ignoring them, and inspiring other comic artists to follow suit.

* South Korean TV networks (especially KBS who's notorious for putting a ban on anything) go to extreme levels regarding what's allowed on music programs and what isn't (music programs are shows artists appear on to perform their music). Plenty of songs and music videos were initially banned by TV networks for various reasons such as lyrics including Japanese words, videos showing the destruction of public property, or videos containing "homosexual imagery". To solve this issue, entertainment companies usually alter their artists' songs and videos and re-release them however, some agencies refuse to change their content in any way and choose to promote it in other programs instead.

** Music/{{BTS}} are the biggest victims of this as many of their songs, such as "Dope" and "Boyz With Fun", the latter got banned for including a Chinese phrase [[note]]''chi fan le ma'' which means ''did you eat?''[[/note]] that resembles a Korean curse word, and the former for having inappropriate lyrics [[note]]''"All the weak, loser, crybaby idiots"'' which j-hope later had to change to their dogs' names during some TV performances[[/note]], among other reasons.
** Female artists have to deal with lots of censorship whenever they go for a sexy concept. [[https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/article/article.aspx?aid=3001682 Many of their dance moves]] and [[https://www.soompi.com/article/627563wpp/fiestars-one-more-banned-by-mbc-for-threesome-reference lyrics]] get banned from TV broadcasts for being provocative.
** Similarly, "How Dare You" by Music/Sistar was banned not only for featuring a pole dance but also for including "belittling lyrics" like "why you play these games?".

* The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is the American government entity which effectively owns the TV and radio airwaves, and as such, it has a lot of say in what can be shown there. Although it can't file criminal charges, it can levy very large fines. It doesn't even ''publish'' a list of its standards--in this department, it makes its decisions on the basis of precedent through a quasi-judicial process[[note]]Please note that this method is entirely acceptable in American administrative law. Under the Administrative Procedure Act and the [[UsefulNotes/AmericanCourts Supreme Court]]'s jurisprudence, an administrative agency like the FCC is permitted to develop its law through the quasi-legislative process of administrative rulemaking or the quasi-judicial process of administrative adjudication. Adjudication is a ''lot'' less work than rulemaking, and also is more suited to fields where there are a lot of judgment calls and context-dependent issues and shades of gray. The FCC is not the only agency to operate this way; the biggest agency to rely on adjudicative processes is actually the National Labor Relations Board. Agencies don't have to do just one thing, either: the FCC uses rulemaking on other matters, like technical standards, licensing requirements for broadcasters, and unexpected stuff like 911 services, but decided to use adjudicative processes for decency standards because of the difficulty in developing clear rules that didn't lead to absurdity.[[/note]]--so a lot of works rely on [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar guesswork]]. One of its most famous punishments was a $325,000 fine for Music/JanetJackson flashing the audience at the 2004 UsefulNotes/SuperBowl; but the record is $1.2 million, for a Creator/{{FOX}} reality show called ''Married by America'' in which someone licked whipped cream off a woman's censored nipples.

* Most governments have Censorship Bureaus of some sort. Dictatorships as well as other authority-centered governments, though, tend to be more concerned with politics than sex and violence. This can lead to some interesting situations:
** Most Roman emperors would censor things strictly, but a key exception was the first, UsefulNotes/JuliusCaesar, who considered his arch-enemy Marcus Porcius Cato something of a WorthyOpponent and refused to censor his literature, even when it was outright critical of him.
* The Catholic Church used to have several organisms tasked with preventing the publication of material hostine to its beliefs.
** The most famous one, the ''Index Librorum Prohibitorum'', maintained by several Roman Curia offices, was a list of various books and authors deemed to be subversive to the Catholic faith. Some of the most notorious authors include Montaigne, Rousseau, Voltaire, Descartes, Kant and Copernic. Some translations of the Bible have been included. Created after the Council of Trente, it was discontinuated on 1961.

* Towards the end of TheNewTens, Creator/SonyInteractiveEntertainment has started imposing a vague set of restrictions on sexual content in games released on PlayStation consoles. The most obvious games affected by this were explicit VisualNovels, a number of which were ironically released on UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch uncut, while the [=PS4=] version had its content {{Bowdlerized}}. Meanwhile, the most visible game altered has been ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry5'', which has the nudity of one of its bosses censored in the [=PS4=] version but untouched on other platforms it came out on.

* In UsefulNotes/{{Spain}}{, UsefulNotes/TheFrancoRegime went to great lengths to censor overly sexual scenarios and imagery. When Music/TheWho released ''Music/{{Quadrophenia}}'' in the country in 1973, the censor removed liner notes for objectionable lyrics, deleted "Doctor Jimmy", and painted a BlackBraAndPanties over the naked women on the posters in Jimmy's room -- by hand.

* Starting in 1986, Creator/{{Nintendo}} of America leaned on third-party publishers to remove all references to religion, drugs, alcohol, and adult situations from their games. They enforced this with the "Nintendo Seal of Quality" -- although it was created to avoid UsefulNotes/{{Shovelware}} on their system, they could withhold it from any game that didn't meet their moral standards as well. Without the seal, developers wouldn't have access to the [[CopyProtection patented game cartridges]] for the system. This was largely in response to very powerful MoralGuardians in TheEighties and the emergence of the trope UltraSuperDeathGoreFestChainsawer3000 -- after that, the ESRB was established to rate video games. Sega wouldn't let Nintendo forget, though, and its marketing slapped a "kiddie" label on Nintendo that [[NeverLiveItDown the company still can't shake]], even after the Switch became the console that more sexually explicit Japanese games were released uncensored on.

* Towards the end of TheNewTens, Creator/SonyInteractiveEntertainment has started imposing a vague set of restrictions on sexual content in games released on PlayStation consoles. The most obvious games affected by this were explicit VisualNovels, a number of which were ironically released on UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch uncut, while the [=PS4=] version had its content {{Bowdlerized}}. Meanwhile, the most visible game altered has been ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry5'', which has the nudity of one of its bosses censored in the [=PS4=] version but untouched in the other ones.