Hasan Minhaj performing. Picture by CleftClips/flickr.com. Some rights reserved (CC BY 2.0) At the beginning of this year, the Financial Times first reported that Netflix, acting on a request from Saudi Arabia’s Communications and Information Technology Commission, removed an episode of the comedy show Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj from the streaming service’s Saudi platform because it was critical of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and his government’s involvement in the war in Yemen. This politically motivated censorship came at a time when the kingdom was already under intense scrutiny over the murder of columnist Jamal Khashoggi in October 2018, apparently on orders from the crown prince. Given its record of intolerance for dissent, Saudi Arabia’s latest move to silence another critical voice online is hardly surprising and only an indication of further censorship to come.
But Netflix’s decision to comply with the request has renewed a critical ongoing debate about how international companies should respond to politically motivated censorship demands when operating in repressive countries. Governments with little regard for freedom of expression routinely ask social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter to remove critical content that allegedly violate domestic laws. The latest restriction in Saudi Arabia suggests that governments will increasingly impose such rules on entertainment and streaming platforms as well. As global internet freedom declines around the world, these instances of online censorship affecting both social media and streaming platforms are only at risk to exacerbate.
Online censorship in Saudi Arabia
In making what Netflix described as “a valid legal request” to remove the Patriot Act episode, the Saudi government claimed that it violated Article 6 of the country’s 2007 Anti-Cyber Crime Law, which bans the production of anything that “harms public order, religious values, public morals, [or] the sanctity of private life” and prohibits “authoring, sending, or storing [such material] via an information network.” The law imposes penalties of up to five years in prison and 3 million riyals ($800,000) in fines on those who violate its vaguely written provisions.
