History Main / CensorshipBureau

* The "Hays Office" was a censorship bureau for American films during UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfHollywood. It was established in 1922 as the movie industry's answer to state censorship initiatives, but UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode wasn't much enforced until 1933. The office would not be dissolved in 1968.

* In UsefulNotes/{{France}}, the law about publications intended for youth was really strictly enforced in 50s to 80s. It was so strict about violence that guns would be replaced with [[FingerGun pointed fingers]], and it was so strict about sex that many comics avoided showing romance outright -- or even female characters at all, leading to a lot of {{Celibate Hero}}es (and {{Heterosexual Life Partner}}s). Most strangely, the law was often used to target foreign comics, which would be banned under any pretense. They even did this to Belgian comics (which are so similar to French ones that many Europeans couldn't tell the difference). Magazines like ''Spirou'' would inaugurate new series whose main purpose was to enhance their image to the censors.

A self-governing body with a censorship code, most visible (and most likely to receive mention) when that code is so draconian and unreasonable in its restrictions that it cripples an entire artistic medium. It usually comes about due to the pleas of the MoralGuardians and {{Media Watchdog}}s, but sometimes, it will come about due to some other circumstances (e.g. the beliefs of a specific corporation); regardless, the presence of such a Censorship Bureau will be a bane to the medium and usually result in it not being taken seriously.

Note that most of these were created in fear of an even ''more'' draconian code being forced on the medium from outside (although with many of these examples, it's hard to imagine how they could be any worse).

* The Youth Ordinance Bill, presented to the Tokyo City Government was passed and is currently enacted to [[MoralGuardians stop children from purchasing what the government believes to be or exactly like porn]].
** The law severely restricts manga/anime that have deemed "sexually deviant" by cutting off publishers from financial backing of other organizations.
** Basically, anime and manga are now heavily regulated by the government.
** The more hilarious aspect of this law is that this is the reason why you see little lines over private parts in porn. Tentacles are also exempt from this law since they are not actual "equipment".

* UsefulNotes/TheComicsCode, as outlined in its own article. The problems this created in plotting led to such, uh, ''gems'' as "ComicBook/LoisLane, [[Franchise/{{Superman}} the Fattest Girl in Metropolis!]]".
** On the other hand, it gave us dinosaurs in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and ComicBook/JimmyOlsen switching brains with a gorilla.
*** [[http://superdickery.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=31&Itemid=47 He switched brains with a gorilla twice.]]
* In UsefulNotes/{{France}}, the law about publications intended for youth was really strictly enforced in 50s to 80s. Guns were sometimes replaced by pointed fingers with no explanation. Foreign comics were banned under any pretense (sometimes because censors were convinced these comics were violent or immoral, sometimes just because they didn't want foreign comics) -- not just non-Europeans, even Belgian ones, which is funny because most French honestly believe some major Belgian comics to be French. It was so bad that Spirou magazine had some series whose main purpose was to enhance their image for Censorship Bureau -- which for example, glared at ''ComicBook/BuckDanny'' because the hero was American.
** Another effect of this law was that authors were discouraged of showing romance or even female characters to avoid being censored. Thus a lot of occurrences of CelibateHero or HeterosexualLifePartner, but also tomboyish (at best) female characters in the comics of that time.

* The "Hays Office" was this for American films during UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfHollywood. It was established in 1922 as the movie industry's answer to state censorship initiatives, but UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode wasn't much enforced until 1933. Joseph I. Breen succeeded Will H. Hays in 1945. The office was finally dissolved in 1968.
* Nowadays, the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) must approve every film and DVD released in the UK. Items not approved may not be legally sold. This created a controversy in 2007 over the "banning" of the video game ''VideoGame/{{Manhunt}} 2''. It should be noted that the BBFC nowadays concentrates on age-rating films, and officially declare that the only thing that will get a film banned outright nowadays is rape and torture filmed in an overtly erotic way.
** Which is why ''Film/TheHumanCentipede II (Full Sequence)'' had to be [[http://www.bbfc.co.uk/CVV278459/ cut by over two-and-a-half minutes in the UK]].
* UsefulNotes/GosKino censored many Soviet films, such as those of Creator/AndreiKonchalovsky and Creator/AndreiTarkovsky.

* The American FCC, since it a) charges ''very'' large fines for violating the standards for programs in media it has authority over (mainly broadcast television and radio), and b)''refuses to publish a list of those standards''; they can't file criminal charges. Those fines started at $27,500 and went up to $325,000 after Janet Jackson flashed the audience at the 2004 UsefulNotes/SuperBowl. The record is $1.2 million, for a Creator/{{FOX}} reality show called ''Married by America'' in which someone licked whipped cream off a woman's censored nipples.
** [[WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy Well, one complaint represents]] [[TakeThat one billion people]].
* The Office of Communications (Ofcom) plays a similar role in the UK (although it should be noted Ofcom deals primarily with things like lying to viewers and porn channels).

* Wal-Mart refuses to stock [=CDs=] with a Parental Advisory label [[DoubleStandard (despite selling M-rated video games and R-rated movies)]]. Since Wal-mart is the world's largest retailer, this causes many artists to make clean versions of their music, even if they wouldn't do so otherwise.

* Apple's iOS App Store has attracted controversy for censoring certain apps, including those from fashion magazines (an editor of one such magazine once referred to their iOS app as their "Iran edition"), papers with [[PageThreeStunna Page Three Stunnas]], and those with politically controversial material, such as one that sent alerts about US Government issued drone strikes.

* In 1986, Nintendo of America -- which saw video games as family entertainment -- leaned on third-party publishers to remove all references to religion, drugs, alcohol, and adult situations from their games. Nintendo threatened to withhold the "Nintendo Seal of Quality" and not manufacture the [[CopyProtection patented game cartridges]] for companies that didn't comply. Even when Sega made a name for itself with the Genesis, Nintendo controlled enough of the video game market share to profoundly influence how games were localized for western consumption; however, Sega's marketing was successful in giving Nintendo a "kiddie" label that [[NeverLiveItDown it's been cursed with ever since]], even after their policies (mostly) lapsed with the advent of the ESRB, which established an independent rating system allowing games to be targeted appropriately.
** Keep in mind that these were the very conservative [[TheEighties Eighties]] during which the US Congress got extremely close to censoring music. If they could censor an art form OlderThanDirt, there's no telling what they would do to New Media like video games that hadn't yet (and still hasn't) gained respect as TrueArt. Nintendo likely feared that the fledgling industry could be shot down by censor-happy MoralGuardians if they weren't careful. In fact, these fears were almost realized in the Nineties when congressional hearings were held over the violence in ''VideoGame/MortalKombat''.
** Sega themselves censored some of the games they released, most notably ''VideoGame/StreetsOfRage III;'' they also instituted an MPAA-style rating system on many of their games before the ESRB was formed.
** The irony is, the "Seal of Quality" ''was'' meaningful then -- Nintendo also blocked truckloads of crap games. After the courts ruled that Nintendo could no longer prohibit independent games, scads came out without the seal -- but stores started voluntarily refusing to carry unlicensed games due to their bad reputation. Nintendo did apply pressure to many retailers, famously threatening to withhold licensed games and consoles from any retailer that carried unlicensed games, but even those retailers brave or foolish enough to stand up to Nintendo's tactics soon stopped selling unlicensed games after being flooded with returns of games that didn't work, were nigh-unplayable, or even bricked the whole game console. That's what the "Seal of Quality" ultimately meant; it wasn't saying "this is a good game" as much as it said "we made sure that this game won't break your system when you turn it on."
** The full extent of this censorship mindset can be glimpsed through [[http://www.crockford.com/wrrrld/maniac.html The Expurgation of Maniac Mansion.]] It's a fascinating read of how Nintendo operated through the 80's.
** The huge irony however is that Nintendo allowed some very gory games to have the Official Nintendo Seal of Quality regardless of those rulings, such as Vic Tokai's ''Golgo 13'', which is notorious for giving the player the ability to snipe people in the head and to allow the player to have sex with a girl to regain their health.
* While often ignored, Sega also had something similar. If Sega would make a decision that would offend the public morale (even before they were known for doing that), they would quietly give out revised editions of their Genesis titles, as well as shipping out the now-censored version[[note]]This was the case with the game ''Mystic Defender'', since the ending would feature a naked woman. After protests from parents, they made a second edition that gave her clothes. Another moment when this was put to use was on a certain boss in ''Revenge of Shinobi'' that looked like a Spider-Man Expy and thus could bring Sega into copyright trouble. They quietly made a revised edition that recolored the boss[[/note]]. It should be noted though that they did not revise third-party titles. The genesis version of the game ''Stormlord'' (which was made by the [[DarkerAndEdgier ''adult video game company'']] Razorsoft and was known for making ports of edgy Commodore games), which featured plenty of naked women, was never revised by sega during the entire time that it was available at retail.

* England had a Censorship Bureau of sorts for theatre which lasted from the Elizabethan era until the late twentieth century. Some believe that operettas/musical theatre came about, at least in part, as a way of getting around this, since musical performances didn't fall under the Censorship Bureau's jurisdiction. This duty was held by the Lord Chamberlain's office; whilst the title and office still exist, it hasn't been responsible for censorship since 1968 (the Lord Chamberlain is today in charge of coordinating the Royal Household and communicating between the House of Lords and the Sovereign; he and his office are basically the Queen's event planners).
** One way around these restrictions was to declare performance venues to be members-only clubs, which were immune to government oversight. Prospective viewers would pay a nominal membership fee (often included in the price of a ticket) and go in. While this had obvious benefits for proprietors of strip clubs and the like, it also enabled the performance of more edgy plays like ''Look Back in Anger'' which, despite their quality, could not be staged publicly.
** During Elizabeth's reign Edmund Tilney was The Master of the Revels. All plays licensed for public performance in England at the time had to be approved by him. He was much more restrictive when it came to political controversy than he was towards either sex or violence. Shakespeare's plays are filled with raunch, innuendo, and bloodshed. Rebelling against the established order only succeeds when the powers that be are presented as usurpers or morally corrupt.

* Dictatorships always had their Censorship Bureaus, more concerned with political references than sex and violence.
** A rather fascinating case of this was the banning of ''Anime/VoltesV'' in the Philippines due to the central anti-dictatorship conflict, which actually lead to the SuperRobot being seen as a symbol of revolution.
** Another interesting case was the release of Music/TheWho's ''Quadrophenia'' in 1973 in Spain. They censored the liner notes for objectionable lyrics, and deleted "Doctor Jimmy." Ah, but that's not all. The booklet contained pictures illustrating Jimmy's story. On the wall of Jimmy's room, there were shall we say, clothing deficient women. These booklets were printed outside the country, so the censors had each offending picture properly clothed with a BlackBraAndPanties...''by hand''.
** [[Creator/GaiusJuliusCaesar Caesar]] surprisingly averted this; Marcus Porcius Cato had been one of his most implacable enemies during the civil war and the two disagreed (sometimes violently) on most political matters, yet the only action he took when seeing literature written after the war and during his dictatorship praising Cato was to write his own piece pointing out his (Cato's) faults. It was acceptable to criticise Caesar during his dictatorship. (You might even make it to important offices, like in the case of Marcus Junius Brutus, who had fought on Pompey's side and written a treatise on Cato after that, praising his virtues.) The emperors after him did not follow this policy and played the trope relatively straight.
* ALL governments engage in censorship under sufficient pressure, such as total war. Go to ThatOtherWiki and enter "Office of Censorship" for a prime example.

** A rather fascinating case of this was the banning of VoltesV in the Philippines due to the central anti-dictatorship conflict, which actually lead to the SuperRobot being seen as a symbol of revolution.
** Another interesting case was the release of TheWho's Quadrophenia in 1973 in Spain. They censored the liner notes for objectionable lyrics, and deleted "Doctor Jimmy." Ah, but that's not all. The booklet contained pictures illustrating Jimmy's story. On the wall of Jimmy's room, there were shall we say, clothing deficient women. These booklets were printed outside the country, so the censors had each offending picture properly clothed with a BlackBraAndPanties...''by hand''.

* The American FCC, since it a) charges ''very'' large fines for violating the standards for programs in media it has authority over (mainly broadcast television and radio), and b)''refuses to publish a list of those standards''; they can't file criminal charges. Those fines started at $27,500 and went up to $325,000 after Janet Jackson flashed the audience at the 2004 UsefulNotes/SuperBowl. The record is $1.2 million, for a {{FOX}} reality show called ''Married by America'' in which someone licked whipped cream off a woman's censored nipples.

** The huge irony however is that nintendo allowed some very gory games to have the Official Nintendo Seal Of Quality regardless of those rulings, such as Vic Tokai's Golgo 13, which is notorious for giving the player the ability to snipe people in the head and to allow the player to have sex with a girl to regain their health.

* Nowadays, the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) must approve every film and DVD released in the UK. Items not approved may not be legally sold. This created a controversy in 2007 over the "banning" of the video game ''{{Manhunt}} 2''. It should be noted that the BBFC nowadays concentrates on age-rating films, and officially declare that the only thing that will get a film banned outright nowadays is rape and torture filmed in an overtly erotic way.

* The American FCC, since it a) charges ''very'' large fines for violating the standards for programs in media it has authority over (mainly broadcast television and radio), and b)''refuses to publish a list of those standards''; they can't file criminal charges. Those fines started at $27,500 and went up to $325,000 after Janet Jackson flashed the audience at the 2004 SuperBowl. The record is $1.2 million, for a {{FOX}} reality show called ''Married by America'' in which someone licked whipped cream off a woman's censored nipples.

** Sega themselves censored some of the games they released, most notably ''StreetsOfRage III;'' they also instituted an MPAA-style rating system on many of their games before the ESRB was formed.

* In UsefulNotes/{{France}}, the law about publications intended for youth was really strictly enforced in 50s to 80s. Guns were sometimes replaced by pointed fingers with no explanation. Foreign comics were banned under any pretense (sometimes because censors were convinced these comics were violent or immoral, sometimes just because they didn't want foreign comics) — not just non-Europeans, even Belgian ones, which is funny because most French honestly believe some major Belgian comics to be French. It was so bad that Spirou magazine had some series whose main purpose was to enhance their image for Censorship Bureau — which for example, glared at ''BuckDanny'' because the hero was American.

* UsefulNotes/TheComicsCode, as outlined in its own article. The problems this created in plotting led to such, uh, ''gems'' as "LoisLane, [[Franchise/{{Superman}} the Fattest Girl in Metropolis!]]".

** On the other hand, it gave us dinosaurs in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and JimmyOlsen switching brains with a gorilla.

* Wal-Mart refuses to stock [=CDs=] with a Parental Advisory label [[DoubleStandard (despite selling M-rated video games and R-rated movies)]]. As Wal-mart is the world's largest retailer, this causes many artists who wouldn't otherwise do so to make clean versions of the music.

** [[FamilyGuy Well, one complaint represents]] [[TakeThat one billion people]].

* While often ignored, Sega also had something similar. Sega would make a decision that would offend the public morale (even before they were known for doing that), then would quietly give out revised editions to their Genesis titles, as well as shipping out the now-censored version[[note]]This was the case with the game ''Mystic Defender'', since the ending would feature a naked woman. After protests from parents, they made a second edition that gave her clothes. Another moment when this was put to use was on a certain boss in ''Revenge of Shinobi'' that looked like a Spider-Man Expy and thus could bring Sega into copyright trouble. They quietly made a revised edition that recolored the boss[[/note]].

* While often ignored, Sega also had something very similar. It could happen frequently that Sega would make a decision that would offend the public morale (even before they were known for doing that) that they would quietly give out revised editions to their genesis titles to please the angry parents and replace the old title with the revised title so that the public would not note that it was different before. This was for instance the case with the game ''Mystic Defender'' since the ending would feature a naked women. After protests from parents they made a second edition that gave her clothes. Another moment when this was put to use was on a certain boss in ''Revenge of Shinobi'' that looked like a Spider-Man Expy and thus could bring Sega into copyright trouble. They quietly made a revised edition that recolored the boss.

** The irony is, the "Seal of Quality" ''was'' meaningful then -- Nintendo also blocked truckloads of crap games. After the courts ruled that Nintendo could no longer prohibit independent games, scads came out without the seal -- but stores started voluntarily refusing to carry unlicensed games due to their bad reputation. Nintendo did apply pressure to many retailers, famously threatening to withhold licensed games and consoles from any retailer that carried unlicensed games, but even those retailers brave or foolish enough to stand up to Nintendo's tactics soon stopped selling unlicensed games after being flooded with returns of games that didn't work or were nigh-unplayable.

* GosKino censored many Soviet films, such as those of Creator/AndreiKonchalovsky and Creator/AndreiTarkovsky.

* While often ignored, Sega also had something very similar. It could happen frequently that Sega would make a decision that would offend the public morale (even before they were known for doing that) that they would quietly give out revised editions to their genesis titles to please the angry parents and replace the old title with the revised title so that the public would not note that it was different before. This was for instance the case with the game ''Mystic Defender'' since the ending would feature a naked women. After protests from parents they made a second edition that gave her clothes. Another moment when this was put to use was on a certain boss in ''Revenge of shinobi'' that looked like a spider-man expy and thus could bring sega into copyright trouble. they quietly made a revised edition that recolored the boss.

* While often ignored, Sega also had something very similar. It could happen frequently that Sega would make a decision that would offend the public morale (even before they were known for doing that) that they would quietly give out revised editions to their genesis titles to please the angry parents and replace the old title with the revised title so that the public would not note that it was different before. This was for instance the case with the game ''Mystic Defender'' since the ending would feature a naked women. After protests from parents they made a second edition that gave her clothes. Another famed case of this is the attempts to remove the ''Thriller'' music track from the game ''Michael Jackson's Moonwalker'', since while they owned all songs that Michael Jackson made this was a song that Michael Jackson only performed and the song was made and owned by someone else. Something that Sega only noted lately (they even advertised it as a feature in their magazine outlet) which made the ''Thriller'' track get removed at the last second but still was in the game, which would never play normally, but you could still hear it if you performed certain glitches, which could put sega into copyright troubles if this went too public. So every single time that a member of the staff at sega would find a glitch that allowed you to hear the ''Thriller'' track they had to immediately fix it and publish that fixed version instead of the older one. The game would get a revision this way 3 times.

* Apple's iOS App Store has attracted controversy for censoring certain apps, including those from fashion magazines, papers with [[PageThreeStunna PageThreeStunnas]], and those with politically controversial material, such as one that sent alerts about US Government issued drone strikes.

* The "Hays Office" was this for American films during the GoldenAgeOfHollywood. It was established in 1922 as the movie industry's answer to state censorship initiatives, but UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode wasn't much enforced until 1933. Joseph I. Breen succeeded Will H. Hays in 1945. The office was finally dissolved in 1968.

Note that most of these were created so that an even ''more'' draconian code wouldn't be forced on the medium from outside (although with many of these examples, it's hard to imagine how they could be any worse).

** The more hilarious aspect of this law is that this is the reason why you see little lines over private parts in porn. [[NaughtyTentacles Tentacles]] are also exempt from this law since they are not actual "equipment".

* After WorldWarII it was prohibited in Finland to do anything that could be seen as "damaging the relationship between Finland and Soviet Union". This led to self-censorship where people who translated foreign comics often changed the words so that they could not be seen as anti-communist. One example included changing "These watches from workers paradise are worthless" to "These [[ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse McDuck]] watches are worthless". In another one phrase "Viva la Revolution!" became "Turn off the lights!"

* England had a Censorship Bureau of sorts for theatre which lasted from the Elizabethan era until the late twentieth century. Some believe that operettas/musical theatre came about, at least in part, as a way of getting around this, since musical performances didn't fall under the Censorship Bureau's jurisdiction. This duty was held by the Lord Chamberlain's office; whilst the title and office still exist, it hasn't been responsible for censorship since 1968.

* Wal-Mart refuses to stock CDs with a Parental Advisory label [[DoubleStandard (despite selling M-rated video games and R-rated movies)]]. As Wal-mart is the world's largest retailer, this causes many artists who wouldn't otherwise do so to make clean versions of the music.