Russia-Ukraine war: Netflix refuses to air Russia state-run channels despite regulations

During the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, many tech companies have made announcements regarding their services. Netflix has now announced that it will not distribute some state-run channels in Russia as mandated by a new law.

As per the Netflix spokesperson, “Given the current situation, we have no plans to add these channels to our service.” This was first spotted by Politico, Netflix falls under the new Russian regulations that are required to be complied with, starting March 1. For the unversed, Netflix was launched in Russia in October 2020. The streaming platform is added to the register maintained by Russian media regulator Roskomnadzor of content distributors.

As per a report by Variety, the new law has not gone fully into effect as of now. It requires large streamers to carry 20 Russian broadcast channels, including state-fund Channel One. For the unversed, Netflix is required to follow this rule as it has 1,00,000 subscribers. The law orders all audio and visual services in Russia to distribute 20 free-to-air news, sports and entertainment channels.

In addition to Channel One, NTV as well as Spa, a channel associated with the Russian Orthodox Church are also a part of these 20 channels.

Going by a report by The Wall Street Journal, the Netflix spokesman declined to comment on whether it had informed Russian authorities about its decision.

In addition to this, Twitter has blocked several accounts of researchers sharing footage and other information about the Russian invasion. Earlier, Russia announced a partial ban on Facebook. Meta (formerly Facebook) said that it was blocking Russian state media from running ads or monetizing its platform anywhere in the world.

As reported earlier, Google has prohibited Russia’s state-owned outlet from advertising and earning money on YouTube. According to the report, YouTube said in a statement that it’s “pausing a number of channels’ ability to monetize on YouTube, including several Russian channels affiliated with recent sanctions.”

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