John Oliver Scrubbed From Chinese Twitter After Xi Segment

All mentions of HBO comedian John Oliver have been blocked from the Chinese version of Twitter after the Last Week Tonight host ran a scathing segment Sunday night about President Xi Jingping. In a 20-minute segment, Oliver ridiculed the Chinese president for “dystopian levels of surveillance and persecution” and online censorship, including the blocking of memes comparing Xi’s figure to Winnie the Pooh’s. “Clamping down on Winnie the Pooh comparisons doesn’t exactly project strength. It suggests a weird insecurity,” Oliver said. Any attempt to publish posts mentioning Oliver’s name or the name of his show on microblogging site Weibo will flash up an error message saying the post violates “relevant laws, regulations, or violates Weibo community rules.” The most recent comments about Oliver or the show were on June 14, before his segment on Xi aired Sunday. You can watch the segment below (except for viewers in China).