Netflix made a lot of people very happy when it announced earlier this month that it was expanding to an additional 130 countries across the globe. It’s now available in over 190 countries, basically worldwide, since there aren’t that many countries left. Netflix’s global rollout has hit its first snag though, Indonesia’s largest telecom is blocking the online video streaming service.
PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia Tbk., commonly known as Telkom, is a state-owned enterprise and it has now started to block Netflix in the country according to a report by The Wall Street Journal. The decision to block the service is based on two basic objections.
Telkom says that Netflix does not have a permit to operate in the country and that much of the content available on Netflix is either too adult or violent to pass Indonesia’s strict censorship standards.
The report carries a suggestion from an Indonesian official who says that Netflix should register itself in the country as a foreign provider of online media and then “self-censor” its content. On the other hand, Netflix says that it already has tools like parental controls and rating guides that make it easy for viewers to access the kind of content they’re interested in.
Netflix has also said that it’s technically not a traditional TV broadcaster since it’s “an internet television network,” which implies that it can’t be held to the same rules as conventional broadcasters. The argument doesn’t seem to fly right now because Telkom continues to block Netflix in Indonesia and may do so indefinitely until an agreement can be reached.
Filed in . Read more about Entertainment and Netflix.