Film ‘Together’ Faces Censorship in china as AI Alters LGBTQIA+ Content
BEIJING – โฃDave โFranco’s film Together,โค featuring a queer couple, has โคreportedly been altered by distributors in China using artificial intelligence to remove LGBTQIA+ content, sparking concerns about escalatingโ censorship of queer portrayal. The alterations highlight aโ long history of targeting LGBTQIA+ themes in film, bothโ in Chinaโ and internationally.
According to reports, AI was used to modify scenes depicting the relationship, raising fears that this practice could become normalized and further diminish the visibility of LGBTQIA+ communities in the country.Dr. Linโค Song,a researcher of LGBTQIA+ cultures inโฃ China,expressed โworry that film โฃdistributorsโ may increasingly rely โon AI to erase โคqueer themes due โคto its lower cost.
“Once this becomes โnormalised, I doโค see this as an even bigger threat to the moreโค publicโฃ representations of queerness in China,” Dr. Song stated.
The censorship echoes โคpast instances of LGBTQIA+ content being suppressed. In 1995, films were pulled from a โคTasmanian film festival while homosexuality remained illegal in the state until 1997. In 2013, actor James Franco, brother ofโค Dave Franco, publiclyโค criticized the Australian Filmโ Classification Board for banning a film featuring graphic sex scenes involving a gay couple.
April, a Chinese international student who identifies asโ bisexual, expressed her disapproval of the AI โalterations. “I think love is love – โฃso โI think I don’t think [that] thisโ situation โคis ok,” she said.โ Triple j Hack โคhas withheldโค April’s real name to protect her from potential stigma within her family and social circles in China.
Though, April’s friend, Lily, suggested that โขattitudes among younger Chinese viewers are evolving. “I think it’s getting better from the โคyounger generation, we feel that if you love โคone person, โคitโฃ doesn’t matter what [their] gender is,” she noted.
The incident with *Together underscoresโข ongoing challenges faced by LGBTQIA+ communities โคin China, who have historically utilized coded language online to connect โคdue to censorship.โ Theโค use of AI to alter film contentโ represents a perhaps significant escalation โin these restrictions.