Netflix removed 9 films and TV shows due to government demands. Here’s why.

Doesn’t it suck when your favorite movies and TV shows get removed from Netflix? 

When Netflix lost Friends at the beginning of the year, fans of the show were really disappointed. But, hey, that’s showbiz. Rights to movies and TV shows get bought, sold, and expire all the time.

But did you know that Netflix has removed movies and TV shows from its service at the demand of foreign governments? Thanks to Netflix’s new efforts to be more transparent, we now know for the first time exactly what content has been removed due to these demands.

According to Netflix’s , the company has removed nine titles in its streaming history in compliance with government takedown demands. The takedowns all occurred between 2015 and 2020.

Government takedowns aren’t a new phenomena for online media platforms. Facebook, Apple, Twitter, YouTube, and even Wikipedia often receive and comply with requests from government bodies to remove content from its platforms in those countries. The reasons for such requests often range from local laws banning certain kinds of content to the publishing of unauthorized material to straight up attempts of censorship.

However, as you can see, many of the companies that receive these takedown requests are social media platforms or services where the content is user-created. The content on Netflix, a subscription-based streaming video service, is all specifically owned by or licensed to the company by television rights holders and Hollywood distributors.

“We offer creators the ability to reach audiences all around the world,” Netflix says in the