Please respect Winnie-the-Pooh
Back at the beginning of 2018, Apple’s SVP of internet software and services told its creators working on Apple TV+ shows to steer clear about any plotlines and situations that might place the Chinese state in a critical light.
An anonymous showrunner that spoke with Buzzfeed also noted that this is a pretty standard practice among all the major streaming platforms. These companies seem to fear that upsetting China could result in their platforms being blocked from the country.
China has often asked Apple to take down things they don’t like including apps from the App Store on their behalf. Apple has obliged removing 517 apps in only the second half of 2018. In all those cases Apple only challenged two of the takedown requests made by the Chinese government.
“We just get a phone call from Apple and they say ‘We just got a call from the Chinese government’ and five minutes later our app is off the App Store,” one US technology executive told BuzzFeed News about getting an app removed.
Judd Apatow came out against the hush-hush policy saying on Twitter:
“Apple Told Some Apple TV+ Show Developers Not To Anger China- hey and don’t mention that Turkey is bad. We sell a lot of watches there. And don’t mention Saudi Arabia murdering journalists- they love the iMac and don’t mention Russia—big iPad market.”
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