Netflix Expands Into a World Full of Censors (nytimes.com) 44
The streaming giant is having to navigate different political and moral landscapes, and calls for government oversight, as it seeks subscribers worldwide. From a report: In September, Netflix released a trailer for the "Breaking Bad" sequel "El Camino." In it, a character sits in a car, lights a cigarette and holds it out the window, its orange tip glowing. The next day, Netflix Turkey released its own version. In it, the character sparks a lighter and puts his hand out of the window. But there's a difference: The cigarette has been edited out. It wasn't the first time Netflix had censored one of its trailers here. In January, the streaming giant edited one for "Sex Education," a series about a teenage sex therapist, to blur a character's hands so you couldn't see the raised middle fingers. These changes may seem small, but they are a sign of Netflix trying to get ahead of regulation it could soon face in Turkey.
[...] In Turkey, and in other countries, Netflix must navigate different political and moral landscapes, and calls for censorship, as it expands worldwide. Its 2018 annual report lists both "censorship" and "the need to adapt our content and users interfaces for specific cultural and language differences" as business risks. India is another country where Netflix has been embroiled in debates around regulation and censorship. In 2017, the company offered viewers "Angry Indian Goddesses," a movie that had been released in Indian theaters in a censored form to avoid offending religious sensibilities.ï Netflix, which is not subject to India's movie theater code, initially showed the censored version anyway, to avoid a backlash from religious viewers. But complaints came instead from viewers who wanted to see the movie uncut. Netflix made that version available and released a statement: "Our members reached out to us and we listened."
[...] In Turkey, and in other countries, Netflix must navigate different political and moral landscapes, and calls for censorship, as it expands worldwide. Its 2018 annual report lists both "censorship" and "the need to adapt our content and users interfaces for specific cultural and language differences" as business risks. India is another country where Netflix has been embroiled in debates around regulation and censorship. In 2017, the company offered viewers "Angry Indian Goddesses," a movie that had been released in Indian theaters in a censored form to avoid offending religious sensibilities.ï Netflix, which is not subject to India's movie theater code, initially showed the censored version anyway, to avoid a backlash from religious viewers. But complaints came instead from viewers who wanted to see the movie uncut. Netflix made that version available and released a statement: "Our members reached out to us and we listened."
I say just blur it out (Score:3)
I think all censorship should be blurred out items, so that they would still be obeying the law but countries with rabid censorship could see what was being denied them... over time being tired of the blurring could lead citizens to push for looser censorship.
I'd also say all blurring should be defined in a meta-form that viewing clients would apply having been sent down separately from the video, that way you could quickly adapt blurring as laws changed, and hackers could get un-restricted content. :-)
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How about a black "censored" rectangle with the controlling politician(s) mandating it listed?
Let the people know who are the responsible ones.
Re:I say just blur it out (Score:5, Informative)
I think all censorship should be blurred out items, so that they would still be obeying the law but countries with rabid censorship could see what was being denied them... over time being tired of the blurring could lead citizens to push for looser censorship.
I'd also say all blurring should be defined in a meta-form that viewing clients would apply having been sent down separately from the video, that way you could quickly adapt blurring as laws changed, and hackers could get un-restricted content. :-)
Oh no, you've never seen Japanese porn have you?
Re:I say just blur it out (Score:4, Funny)
Oh no, you've never seen Japanese porn have you?
Nobody really has, it's all blurry
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Oh no, you've never seen Japanese porn have you?
Nobody really has, it's all blurry
They don't really "blur" though do they? It's more large pixels ...so you can still pretty much see everything.
loopholes : Satan's delight, and the piteous mans lament.
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I'm a bit concerned about the state of your private parts if you think large pixels = pretty much everything.
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Re: I say just blur it out (Score:2)
You really havenâ(TM)t ever seen Japanese porn
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There is uncensored Japanese porn. Used to be distributed on VHS, along with uncensored magazines. Later it all moved online, theoretically only for viewing outside Japan but most of the consumers are Japanese.
That kind of thing is not uncommon in Japan. Technically gambling is illegal but it's also extremely popular and practised at thousands of pachinko parlours around the country. Instead of winning money you win prizes so it's legal, and there is a handy shop just around the corner where you can sell yo
How will the USA blur out "cunt" then? (Score:2)
And will we get blurry images that clearly show a penis, distinguishable from a skin-colored leaf or something unusual and story-relevant down there?
It'd be hilarious though, if my country, Germany, would blur out all the murder tools and war propaganda and Nazi paraphenelia and symbols. Many US movies would become one single large blur with the occasional bit of exposed skin still visible. ;)
P.S. I shall make a movie ... (Score:2)
... where the entire plot hinges on a neo-Nazi's penis being circumcises (implying he's actually a Jewish-Muslim American).
There will also be somebody called "Kant" (actually pronounced "cunt") that gets mentioned and called a lot. :D
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According to Michael J. Sandel [youtube.com], moral philosophy professor at Harvard, the pronunciation of Kant in American English is with an emphasis on a long 'a'.
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As an educated American, I never noticed a similarity between the sound of Kant and cunt. I never heard them pronounced similarly in classes.
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However they're obviously not pronounced the same. As far as I know the commonly pronunciation of the 'a' in Kant is like the 'a' in can (adjective).
Merriam Webster for the American version: https://www.merriam-webster.co... [merriam-webster.com]
Oxford English Dictionary for the British version: https://www. [lexico.com]
Free speech and free expression forever. (Score:5, Insightful)
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You say that, but Netflix is an *American* company, you know, that country where a nipple on live TV caused a political storm and the FCC to raise the maximum fine limit etc etc etc?
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Oh, you sweet summer child. Netflix can be 'suggested' to censor a whole bunch of stuff in the US, and as long as it's not directly the government doing it they are completely free to censor.
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It's only weird if you think all censorship is automatically bad. Actually I quite like censoring spam and ads and muting the occasional troll on Twitter. It's not doing them any harm, they can still exercise their right to free speech, they just can't force me to waste my resources and time to assist them.
I actually outsource a lot of the censorship. One reason I like Gmail is that their spam censorship is second to none.
If I had kids I'd surely make use of other corporate censors to ensure that they only
Must be an interesting article.... (Score:2, Insightful)
...but unfortunately MSMASH keeps posting articles THAT ARE PAYWALLED!!! I'll be damned if I am going to give a dead tree publisher $10 to read one damn article.
In the past (Score:2)
To see what a free nation could produce and export.
Now the world gets to enjoy US censorship.
To keep Communist in China happy.
To keep some theocracy happy
To allow for the politics of EU nations like Germany, France, Spain?
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US institutions have censored nudity for a long long time, because that's the censorship that is culturally acceptable in their own culture.
It's the US where people get mad about public breastfeeding, as if it wasn't something perfectly normal but filthy pornography.
Yes, some other country's censorship is much worse, where they censor way more important things like political speech, but the US isn't without its own censorship idiosyncrasies as you like to pretend it is.
Like there aren't any censors in the US (Score:1)
It's how you do it... (Score:2)
Come with me
And you'll be
In a world of censorship for nations
It's about time (Score:2)
Hey, Erdogan, this is for protecting Baghdadi (Score:2)
"In [Turkey], the streaming giant edited...a series about a teenage sex therapist, to blur a character's hands so you couldn't see the raised middle fingers."
No doubt the character had "Armenian" and "Genocide" tattooed on the offending digits.
An attack on global culture (Score:2)
People are different. News at 11. (Score:2)
Oh noes! The aren't all goose-stepping to my own personal views and biases! The bastards!
But ... But ... MY morals are THE absolute morals!
And when *they* make the exact same claim, I am right and they are wrong!
Let's (op)press them (into my mold)!
-- Literally everyone.
(But especially world polices. E.g. Religious, political or whatever.)
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Then they should seek help from a mental health professional who may be able to give them insight on why they offend themselves.
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Yeah or a lot of people that don't think using the excuse "that guy did it so.. " is acceptable. Some people are reasonable and think that reason should be applied to themselves and "the other guys"
What good for the goose is good for the gander , yes?
Not news (Score:2)
Sorry, but this isn't news.
I watched the movie "Troy" in Cairo, Egypt in 2003. Years later, I saw the real "Troy". Discovered all the naughty bits the Egyptian censors edited out for distribution. Hollywood's been selling censored movies to the Middle East for decades. Money is money, no matter which country it comes from.
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Then leave it alone. Stop trying to get all it's oil and get the fuck out. Most of them don't care about or want "democracy", it's not like it works in America anyway.
They have had centuries of Caliphate abc leader for life etc. etc. and you waltz in saying, "Hey, now you can vote, it won't mean dick, but you got to vote for it!".
Oh, and we bombed the crap out of your infrastructure, your schools (sorry about the kids) and your hospitals,
PHEW (Score:2)
Comment (Score:2)
I understand having to follow laws in places you do business. However, if editing the movie by removing offensive bits for laws is acceptable, why is editing the movie for offensive bits on request (cf. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]) unacceptable?
i got no problem with this (Score:2)
it would be different if they censored the cigarette everywhere.
But.... (Score:1)