My Little Pony deemed too gay and sexy for Russian streaming

The animated children’s series My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic has been on the air in the States since 2010, but as of now, it’s officially categorized as 18+ only content in Russia.

That’s right: viewers wishing to stream the 9-season cartoon on the Russian streamer Kinopoisk will have to be over 18 to enjoy the PG antics of Twilight Sparkle, Pinky Pie, Applejack, and Fluttershy, for reasons currently unknown. Though we can probably make an educated guess.

Russia is famously not down with the gays, and has built a new national identity on that fact, thanks to Putin. The fact that Russia recently classified LGBT activists as “extremists” and instituted a ban last year on everything it considers to be gay propaganda—including shows and films that simply include gay characters—might have something to do with it. While My Little Pony is famous for having a wide appeal across many audience demographics, including ostensibly straight, cis “bronies”, the brilliant rainbow colors and decidedly fruity names could have contributed to the show’s new classification as something closer to porn. Which is, to be clear, both bleak and hilarious.

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A separate crackdown on the Russian social platform VKontakte involved removing all known evidence of the band t.A.T.u.—famous for their iconic lesbian music video “All the Things She Said”—from the site.