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Netflix: We're Not In The Truth To Power Business, We're In The Entertainment Business

Netflix: We're Not In The Truth To Power Business, We're In The Entertainment Business

4 years ago
Anonymous $xdcOWPpsb_

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20191108/10071343348/netflix-were-not-truth-to-power-business-were-entertainment-business.shtml

You may recall that back in January Netflix took something of a public pounding for pulling an episode of Hasan Minhaj's Patriot Act, after Minhaj went hard at Mohammad bin Salman. Netflix pulled the episode inside of Saudi Arabia when the country claimed the episode violated the kingdom's internet laws, which mostly revolve around keeping any criticism of the Saudi royal family off of the internet. Critics in America and elsewhere slammed Netflix for kissing the Saudi family's ring, while still others pointed out that the episode was still available on Netflix's YouTube page, including in Saudi Arabia. Some even argued that Netflix knew that all of this would be Streisanded, actually getting the episode more attention in Saudi Arabia that way.

Such strategic moves to hold to moral values doesn't appear to have been reality, however, as Netflix CEO Reed Hastings recently came out and publicly washed his company's hands of any kind of value-based stance.