Lady Gaga’s visit with the Dalai Lama on Monday didn’t escape the watchful eye of China’s censors. They now want the singer scrubbed from China’s internet.
Hong Kong news outlet Apple Daily reports that China’s Ministry of Propaganda and SARFT, the regulatory body that oversees media, ordered China’s broadcast and websites to stop offering Lady Gaga songs. They also ordered media outlets not to publish anything (link in Chinese) about Lady Gaga’s meeting with the Dalai Lama, other than what prominent state-media publications have written.
“[Media outlets] must resolutely struggle against Tibetan independence, and closely follow reports from CCTV, the Global Times, People’s Daily, and other reports and commentary from central media outlets,” the directive reads, according to Apple Daily.
China’s media regulators often issue similar directives when sensitive issues surface, telling news outlets to stop covering stories, use only official reports, and sometimes remove articles from their websites.
Lady’s Gaga visit angered some of China’s online commenters, but so far news outlets and media streamers haven’t attacked the singer.
State media publications have not written angry commentary on the meeting, or even reported on it at all. One widely-circulated article from Netease, an independent news portal, summarized angry responses about the meeting from China’s internet users. It has since been removed from the site.
A search on QQ Music, one of China’s most popular music streaming sites, shows there’s still plenty of Lady Gaga music available.
