Brad Pitt, who is technically still banned from China thanks to his role in the 1997 movie Seven Years in Tibet, opened a verified Sina Weibo account yesterday, @Brad_Pitt. His first message, published at exactly noon, was simple and to the point*: “It is the truth. Yup, I’m coming…” In two hours, according to Tech in Asia, that post had amassed more than 8,000 comments and 20,000 forwards.
And now it’s been deleted. Welcome to China indeed, Mr. Pitt.
As you can see in the above screenshot, Brad Pitt, he of 175,399 followers, doesn’t technically have any messages as of this moment. Hmm.
Let’s take a closer look:
Maybe he isn’t coming to China after all?
At the moment, we can’t be sure whether he deleted the message himself (by which we mean his PR people) or if it was the work of Sina Weibo’s censors, who, in light of all that has been happening in the past few days, may want to play it safe instead of giving one of the world’s most popular actors — and certainly the most high-profile actor banned from the mainland — his own soapbox. We’ll keep an eye on it for you, paparazzi-style.
*UPDATE, 11:51 pm: I might have mischaracterized Pitt’s message when I called it “simple and to the point.” It’s actually cryptic and confusing as all hell.
(H/T Eric Fish)
UPDATE, 2/15, 9:06 am: Brad Pitt’s Sina Weibo account is gone.
Just how is this a “verified Sina account”? Also, he has made a poor judgement in choosing a really old unflattering headshot of himself.
The “V” icon is verification.