【Sisters Slave (2019)】

Netflix has hit a snag,Sisters Slave (2019) as it makes its first steps into China.

The streaming giant's hit original series Bojack Horseman got pulled from iQiyi, China's biggest streaming service, a mere two days after it was first aired, reported Bloomberg.

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Netflix was airing it in China via a licensing deal with iQiyi, which has over 500 million monthly users in the country.

iQiyi had only aired three episodes of the show when it was pulled on June 21. A spokesperson from the streaming service told Varietythat "adjustments need to be made to the content," but didn't say when the show would return to the site.

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The incident has hit Chinese fans hard. Bojack Horsemanhad already garnered a domestic fanbase, thanks to online streaming (and, ahem, downloads).

On Weibo, China's version of Twitter, Bojack Horsemanmemes abound, largely thanks to the show's eponymous anti-hero who's resounded with China's millennial viewers.

So it's no surprise that Weibo users were pretty miffed that the show was pulled:

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"I paid for a membership just to watch Bojackyesterday, and when I went to search today I can't find it. Why? @iQiyi"

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"Wanted to pay for a VIP membership at iQiyi to watch Bojack, but when I went to search the show was gone! How could this happen?"

Many also expressed cynicism and anger at Chinese censors:

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"The SAPPRFT (China's censorship board) really has nothing better to do -- they want to control everything people see!"

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"Oh, by the time you air it, I'd have finished animating the whole thing myself."

Some just went back to blatantly asking for downloads:

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"Bojackhas been taken off iQiyi -- the critics are still out for this show, but no one's complaining about Rick and Mortyyet. Quick, PM me for links!"

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"Doesn't everyone just download the show? Wait, you can watch it online?"

"Yeah, downloading it is so much safer 😝"

Chinese censors have been mercurial in deciding what it wants to cut, which has made Netflix's entry into the country pretty difficult.

A deal with iQiyi was aimed at reducing the amount of hassle Netflix would have faced trying to break into China alone -- the country's censorship and content policy meant that it had to obtain a government licence and have its original content approved by censors.

But it seems that the licensing deal hasn't been able to stop that.

Netflix's documentaries Making a Murdererand Chef's Table-- released on iQiyi earlier in June -- remain available on the streaming platform. iQiyi also plans to release Mindhunter and the second season of Stranger Things, according to Bloomberg.

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The company's senior vice-president told Bloomberg before Bojackwas pulled, that Netflix had to give Chinese censors lead time to approve its content.

"The approval process is a bit long in China," Yang, who was in-charge of the company's licensing agreements with Netflix, said. "[It] takes at least a month."

We reached out to iQiyi, and will update if we hear back.

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Topics Netflix