Netflix has removed an episode of a comedy show critical of Saudi Arabia after the internet streaming service received a complaint from the kingdom, renewing concerns about government control over freedom of expression on online platforms.
The second episode of Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj focused on Saudi Arabia in the aftermath of the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and included criticism of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen. “Now would be a good time to reassess our relationship with Saudi Arabia. And I mean that as a Muslim, and as an American,” Mr Minhaj said at the start of the episode. He called the Yemen war “the biggest tragedy of the MBS era”, referring to the crown prince by his initials.
Netflix confirmed that it had removed the episode in Saudi Arabia last week, after the country’s Communications and Information Technology Commission made a request to take it down because it allegedly violated the kingdom’s anti-cyber crime law. Saudi Arabia has become an influential player in the technology and entertainment sectors through big investments by its sovereign wealth fund, which directly owns stakes in companies such as Uber and many other groups indirectly through its backing of Japan’s SoftBank Vision Fund.
Later in the removed episode, Mr Minhaj criticised Silicon Valley for “swimming in Saudi cash” and urged tech companies to stop taking investment from the kingdom. The Saudi law has been previously criticised by human rights groups as a tool to suppress free speech and has been used to convict activists using social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook to criticise the government in recent years. The CITC did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but Netflix defended its decision. “We strongly support artistic freedom worldwide and only removed this episode in Saudi Arabia after we had received a valid legal request — and to comply with local law,” the company said.
Netflix said the Saudi telecoms regulator cited Article 6 of the law as reason for the request. The article states that “production, preparation, transmission, or storage of material impinging on public order, religious values, public morals, and privacy, through the information network or computers” is a crime punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine not exceeding SR3m ($800,000). While the episode has been removed from Netflix, Saudi users can still watch it on the show’s official channel on YouTube.
Activists and rights groups warn that some governments may abuse their legal procedures in order to deprive their citizens of basic freedoms and say companies should take a more nuanced approach when it comes to addressing official takedown requests from undemocratic states. “Banning a comedy act that brings valid criticism of a government is a counterproductive measure and an affront to the freedom of expression that all citizens deserve,” said Jillian C York, a director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The incident comes as online platforms and the technology companies behind them face increasing scrutiny over their public policy and relationship with governments.
Saudi Arabia, where roughly two-thirds of the population are under 30, represents a rapidly growing market for tech companies, which can make them cautious about upsetting the authorities for fear of losing access to affluent consumers. Twitter quietly fired a Saudi engineer in 2015 after western intelligence officials told the company that the government had persuaded him to spy on the accounts of dissidents, according to the New York Times. The company also warned of “unusual activity” from Saudi Arabia and China last November after discovering a bug that could have revealed the country code of users’ phone numbers. Experts say companies should be transparent about removing or restricting content, with a clear policy of conducting due diligence on government requests that follow legal procedures.
“If they are not doing all these things then they are not following established industry best practice for being accountable and responsible in handling government demands to restrict content,” said Rebecca MacKinnon, director of the Ranking Digital Rights project at the New America Foundation. Netflix said its policy of complying with local law was consistent with how other US-based companies operated, but it did not disclose information about how many government requests it received or how many were acted upon in each jurisdiction.
