In Russia, Netflix will have to broadcast the country’s national channels if the streaming platform is to continue operating in the country. This is the consequence of a measure decided by the telecommunications supervisory authorities.
Besides the series and films that are usually found on Netflix, Russian subscribers to the platform will also be able to watch programs from around twenty state channels! Roskomnadzor, the Russian body in charge of telecommunications surveillance, has called on the service to comply with new legislation that will come into force next March.
Propaganda tools
As it turns out, Netflix is now registered as an “audiovisual service” in Russia, a registry created at the end of last year and in which all streaming services which have more than 100,000 daily users are present. So this is quite logically the case with Netflix.
The platform will therefore have to host the non-stop NTV news channel, the Orthodox Church channel, as well as other channels that are often qualified as pro-Kremlin propaganda by human rights and democracy organizations. The stranglehold on public freedoms has tightened a lot in Russia, following the same path as China.
Google and Apple were thus forced to withdraw an application of Alexei Navalny, one of the main opponents of Vladimir Poutine and now arrested. The Kremlin has also pressured Google and Facebook to remove content deemed illegal by the government.
