Netflix Reveals Its 9 Government Takedown Requests (axios.com) 47
Netflix has taken down just nine pieces of content around the world in response to written government requests since it was founded 23 years ago, the company revealed for the first time. From a report: In its first-ever report on what it calls Environmental Social Governance, Netflix says it has already received one takedown request this year from the government of Singapore to remove "The Last Hangover," a Brazilian comedy. To date, Netflix has received three written requests from the government of Singapore covering five pieces of content, and one each from New Zealand, Vietnam, Germany, and Saudi Arabia. All have been since 2015. Netflix says it will only take down content if it receives a written request from the government seeking the censorship.
Saved you a click (Score:5, Informative)
From the actual Netflix document, the only place that actually lists all of the movies taken down and by who (journalists can't be arsed to copy + paste these days):
â In 2015, we complied with a written demand from the New Zealand Film and Video Labeling Body to remove The Bridge from the service in New Zealand only. The film is classified as âoeobjectionableâ in the country.
â In 2017, we complied with a written demand from the Vietnamese Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information (ABEI) to remove Full Metal Jacket from the service in Vietnam only.
â In 2017, we complied with a written demand from the German Commission for Youth Protection (KJM) to remove Night of the Living Dead from the service in Germany only. A version of the film is banned in the country.
â In 2018, we complied with a written demand from the Singapore Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) to remove Cooking on High, The Legend of 420, and Disjointed from the service in Singapore only.
â In 2019, we complied with a written demand from the Saudi Communication and Information Technology Commission to remove one episodeâ"âoeSaudi Arabiaââ"from the series Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj from the service in Saudi Arabia only.
â In 2019, we received a written demand from the Singapore Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) to remove The Last Temptation of Christ from the service in Singapore only. The film is banned in the country.
â In 2020, we complied with a written demand from the Singapore Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) to remove The Last Hangover from the service in Singapore only.
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â In 2017, we complied with a written demand from the Vietnamese Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information (ABEI) to remove Full Metal Jacket from the service in Vietnam only.
Kind of surprised at this. FMJ basically portrays the US Marines as exploitative, heartless killing machines.
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Re:Saved you a click (Score:4, Informative)
And here is the same list, formatted correctly for Slashdot's lack of UTF-8 support and with spacing between list items so it's easy to read:
- In 2015, we complied with a written demand from the New Zealand Film and Video Labeling Body to remove The Bridge from the service in New Zealand only. The film is classified as "objectionable" in the country.
- In 2017, we complied with a written demand from the Vietnamese Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information (ABEI) to remove Full Metal Jacket from the service in Vietnam only.
- In 2017, we complied with a written demand from the German Commission for Youth Protection (KJM) to remove Night of the Living Dead from the service in Germany only. A version of the film is banned in the country.
- In 2018, we complied with a written demand from the Singapore Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) to remove Cooking on High, The Legend of 420, and Disjointed from the service in Singapore only.
- In 2019, we complied with a written demand from the Saudi Communication and Information Technology Commission to remove one episode "Saudi Arabia" from the series Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj from the service in Saudi Arabia only.
- In 2019, we received a written demand from the Singapore Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) to remove The Last Temptation of Christ from the service in Singapore only. The film is banned in the country.
- In 2020, we complied with a written demand from the Singapore Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) to remove The Last Hangover from the service in Singapore only.
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formatted correctly for Slashdot's lack of UTF-8 support
Thanks, you get used to it, though. Your brain does the translating. I don't even see the code. All I see is blonde, brunette, quotation marks and bullets.
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Yeah, but you're Gungan, so it wasn't really a surprise.
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“My quotes are smarter than yours, they bring all the trolls to the Slashdot.”
Re:Saved you a click (Score:5, Informative)
To further complete the journalists' jobs for them:
- New Zealand doesn't like video of actual people killing themselves
- Vietnamese don't like American Vietnam war movies
- Singapore doesn't like drugs, or movies about Jesus getting drunk and/or fucking
- The Saudis don't like comedians calling their crown prince a murderer
- The Germans don't like zombies. Looks like they ban quite a few horror movies, including over the top violent ones, but also weirdly a few of the zombie comedy variety.
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The Germans don't like zombies. Looks like they ban quite a few horror movies, including over the top violent ones, but also weirdly a few of the zombie comedy variety.
I wonder what they think of Død snø, then.
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I wonder what they think of Død snø, then.
It was on TV here in Germany in the last few weeks . . . parts I & II . . . I didn't think they were very good.
The same channel showed "Let the Right One In" (Swedish) recently. I really found that amusing, although I usually don't like cute films.
I guess the channel is discovering the Nordic Horror Genre.
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To be fair, the media got their asses handed to them by bloggers, so they fired most of their journalists and replaced them with news aggregators and summary writing algorithms.
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New Zealand doesn't like video of actual people killing themselves
Just checked that it was that "The Bridge" since there's another film of that name, same year, which is critical of Scientology. Looks like it was that one. Weird thing to ban, it's a fact-based documentary.
Or maybe they meant this one [nzfilm.co.nz].
Or this one [nzonscreen.com].
Here are the censored movies (Score:3)
With links:
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In 2017, we complied with a written demand from the German Commission for Youth Protection (KJM) to remove Night of the Living Dead from the service in Germany only. A version of the film is banned in the country.
I hope Netflix replied with a "Hitler reacts" video.
Environmental Social Governance (Score:5, Interesting)
what it calls Environmental Social Governance
Why? Just call it the Censorship Report or Takedown Report instead.
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^ THIS.
Governments treating people like they are too stupid to make an informed decision of what to watch just makes the government look completely clueless.
Sugar coating censorship doesn't make it go away. The ONLY valid long-term strategy is Name and Shame these morons.
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^ THIS.
Governments treating people like they are too stupid to make an informed decision of what to watch just makes the government look completely clueless.
Sugar coating censorship doesn't make it go away. The ONLY valid long-term strategy is Name and Shame these morons.
You might have a shorter list if you listed countries that don't censor the media in their own countries. In fact I'd be surprised if you could name even one country that doesn't have any sort of censorship in place.
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I'm pretty sure our Canadian government doesn't cen{#`%${%&`+'${`%&NO CARRIER
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Because most of the report is not about those nine requests?
Re:Environmental Social Governance (Score:5, Insightful)
Because tone is sometimes more important then the message.
If they called it the Censorship Report, that has a negative connotation and may put these countries at odds with Netflix for something rather minor.
Every country has standards on what is acceptable and not. Even in Free America there is content that is considered tame or normal in other countries which we find repulsive.
Netflix isn't trying to be a social justice warriors, they just want to make money. So placing customer countries legal takedown requests in a neutral sounding list, offers visibility that people want to see, however it isn't judging the countries for wanting it removed.
Today's politics using the right tone has fallen to the wayside. (On both ends of the political spectrum) A case when once side gets a political win, the other side gets a political loss. A proper tone in communication can ease the blow of not getting exactly what you want, or if you do get what you want you are not immediately on a counter attack.
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Netflix isn't trying to be a social justice warriors, they just want to make money.
You don't have to remind me of that, they one of several big tech companies (Netflix/Google/Microsoft) the forcibly inserted DRM into the W3C. An employee working on the spec thought completely violating the stated primary mission of the W3C (to make the internet accessible to everyone regardless of OS or hardware) was a "stupid reason" for not having the EME.
Trust me, I know their only interest is money and I hope they choke on it.
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what it calls Environmental Social Governance
Why? Just call it the Censorship Report or Takedown Report instead.
But New Zealand is a perfect democratic Utopia with freedom and cute puppy-like animals for all?!?!?!?!?
How can you say such a thing about Bilbo?!
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Why? Just call it the Censorship Report or Takedown Report instead.
But New Zealand is a perfect democratic Utopia
It is Netflix that is using the euphemism, not NZ. The head of the NZ film classification board is officially the "Chief Censor".
Why Night of the Living Dead (Score:3)
Why would they ban Night of the Living Dead in Germany?
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Why would they ban Night of the Living Dead in Germany?
I haven't been able to find any reason, so instead here is a list of 154 movies that also have been banned in Germany.
Banned in Germany [imdb.com]
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It seems the remake is banned, and the 30th anniversary release of the original apparently got caught in the crossfire and nobody's gotten around to fixing it.
https://www.schnittberichte.co... [schnittberichte.com]
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Reichsfuhrer Merkel can't have her Merkeljugen be corrupted now can she?
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If they have "nazi zombies", with nazi flags and like, that may be the problem... but probably it is related to blood and killing of (unknown)
they also banned carmaggedom, but the game worked around by switch the blood to green. Red blood was bad, but green blood was aliens, so it was ok. IIRC, the game detected the system locale and switched the blood color to comply with the rules.
Re: Why Night of the Living Dead (Score:2)
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Re:Why Night of the Living Dead (Score:4, Funny)
The German government has exceptions for educational documentaries.
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What about "Iron Sky"?
It's shown regularly on TV in Germany . . . it was a Finnish/German co-production.
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Why would they ban Night of the Living Dead in Germany?
Sex is OK on the screen, but violence isn't. Extremely violent movies will get an over 18 rating, while films with graphic sexual acts are given an over 12.
It's exactly the opposite of where I grew up in the US, where you see hundreds of bloody murders on TV before the age of 10, but the whole country is outraged at Janet Jackson's nipple on TV.
Whatever.
Oh, and on a side point the ratings aren't set by a government organization, but by a film industry group, called the Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle der Fi
Re: Why Night of the Living Dead (Score:1)
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We are a bunch of obese, crazy neo-Victorians who have been thoroughly desensitized to violence. USA! USA! USA!
No, a lot of the push against sex these days comes in the form of feminism, i.e. "porn objectifies women" kind of viewpoint. Victorianism would be that porn leads to "self-abuse" in the form of masturbation, which was viewed as a common cause of disease, though the US wasn't alone in that. In the Victorian era, it was already a forgone conclusion that women were objects, so whole different rationale.
Feminists also the leading force against brothels being legalized, though that's more out of a concern that t
That's SWERF talk (Score:2)
Feminists also the leading force against brothels being legalized, though that's more out of a concern that the most outspoken of the feminists would never get laid if men could just pay for sex instead.
Nowadays, only a minority of feminists believe this, the so-called sex worker exclusive radical feminists (SWERFs) [sjwiki.org]. They assume that women who choose sex work without having been trafficked have chosen sex work out of desperation from lacking other opportunity. Thus the proverbial oldest profession is the profession of last resort, and the very existence of a profession of last resort coerces women [wikipedia.org].
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They've been under frequent criticism for their arbitrary actions and hardass stance on even very outdated media especially by video-game players and related media. For example they only removed the game Doom from their 'index' in 2011. But the conservative parties do seem to adhere to this institution, even though no other Western, industrialize nation seems to get by fine without one of them.
The BPjM is mostly involved in
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Most likely because the BPjM has been an overbearing institution for a long time.
They are nothing more than some sort of strict police. Dammit! What's the word I'm looking for? I'm thinking of an authoritarian regime with the streets filed with uniformed soldiers that arrest people for the slightest offense. It was on the tip of my tongue.
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These institutions are superfluous at best, especially after so many studies have shown little causation between consumption of that media and negative behaviour. And while armchair psychology might be pig-headed it's quite popular, which is what politicians like - popularity.
Having spent the later half of my childhood in Germany and with video games available, I've played a lot of those indexed games. It's because adults let me do it. Otherwise we went to Austria or Switzerland to
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Nazis? (figuratively)
Gestapo.
How many takedown requests did they get? (Score:1)
And yet not "The Interview"? (Score:2)
Thanks Barbara (Score:3)
I'll have to check that movie out.
Freedom (Score:1)