Back in February, a Kuwaiti lawyer filed a lawsuit against the MOC demanding the blocking of Netflix due to the Arabic movie Perfect Strangers. The lawyer believes the movie goes against local religious and moral values and so wants Netflix banned in Kuwait. Well, the first day of the hearing is today.
I highly doubt Netflix will get banned but you never know here. Good luck Kuwait!
34 replies on “Netflix Ban Hearing Starts Today”
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Also, I love the image on this post lol
#BlackMarkerRedactionGang
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always in the headlines for the wrong reasons…..siiiiigh
This is unusual because countries have asked Netflix to ban specific episodes and netflix has complied. the ban could have just been about the one movie, and not the entire service. /shrug
LOL. They take great relish with their blanket bans here.
There’s another ban case against a khaleji show, although a bit different, but the reasons were similar of being immoral etc. The case was dismissed because the show was filmed outside of Kuwait.
I finished watching Ozark, so it is fine.
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Do age ratings mean nothing in this country? 😭
No… you have kids watching the blood and gore of The Northman but god forbid they see a kiss
Wow The Northman was a dissapointment. Trailer was good but the film was a flop.
Well no because sex is still haram when you’re over 18 🤷🏻
Lol sex isn’t haram. Having sex outside of marriage is.
Hearing postponed till June 8
Netflix will not be banned because of global headline risk of “Kuwait censorship” and/or “Kuwait hostile to American business”.
On a more practical level, Netflix has regional teams that engage with the relevant authorities in countries it is available in to restrict content deemed sensitive to local eyes. There is a regional precedent for this in Saudi Arabia. Banning Netflix outright would preclude the Kuwaiti authorities from engaging in this censorship process, and would push customers into consuming pirated uncensored content or streaming Netflix through VPNs, scenarios in which the Kuwaiti authorities would have no say on what content is available.
This proceeding and the ultimate outcome serve the dual purpose of a) public distraction and b) kabuki theatre to support the narrative that an independent judiciary vindicates individual rights, freedom of speech, bla bla bla. Almost more entertaining than Netflix itself.
“Global headline risk”
What happened to Kuwait not caring about what the world thinks of them? I don’t think any such headline will hurt Kuwait’s revenue, majority of which comes from oil. Banning Netflix here will only harm Netflix.
Banning Netflix here will only harm Kuwait. Netflix doesn’t care about such a tiny market, we’re insignificant.
Mark, with all due respect, don’t say “we’re”, and do respect this nation and never describe it as “insignificant” in any context, you’re an expat after all.
And in all seriousness, banning one more entertainment network never hurt any country, let’s be mature.
A local emerges taking offense with a fairly benign criticism of x phenomenon in Kuwait, largely a function of “it’s” own insecurity. Deploys the customary nativist arguments: “know your place” and/or “if you don’t like it, leave”. Same arguments deployed against tribal demo unhappy with status quo is deployed against expats. Yawn.
expat after all? we as expat have build your nation and provided service in every possible way. your maid is a expat. your family driver is a expat. if a citizen runs a company his entire work force is expat. at hotels and restaurants it is always expats. lets assume if all expats decides to leave it will affect your daily routine and if you tell us to leave we will go back to our country and find another 1 and move on. especially mark is Canadian he has more options 😀
You have not built this nation, and let’s outrageously assume you built the nation, you telling someone that lives in their country that you know their country more than they do (because you lurk in streets and keep up to date with gossip here and there) and that you have built it for them is seriously rude. Go fix your own countries first before you preach here. I find it beyond hilarious when expats express their endless opinions about Kuwait when their own countries are submerged with endless crap.
Like it or not, expats living in Kuwait have the right to express their opinions on Kuwait. I personally don’t care what’s going on in my own home country because I don’t live there, I live here and so will point out issues going on here when I see them. As an example of this, if I didn’t highlight the garbage problems in my neighborhood, they would never have gotten fixed. https://248am.com/?s=garbage+salmiya
Instead of telling us to keep our mouths shut you should be thanking us for trying to improve the living situation here when we could be focusing on our own countries which also need our help.
I see, so calling for changes against the country’s intrinsic values, tradition, and religion who people are happy with (such as wanting restaurants to open during Ramadan, alcohol, pubs, partying, etc) must be to improve the country as well, right?
I worked in the government sector for over a decade, one expat enters the institution and in turn his entire family members are hired (wife, daughter, son, cousins, in-laws, friends, connections, etc). The person hiring them is from the same origin. It takes a lawsuit to get a local to get one of those positions. And how about when a community within the institution is set up during an event or a project, where does the collected money go if 90% of the community is from that wonderful expat and his entire colony? To him and his peeps of course. That must be improving the country.
Of course the person hiring them sits and complains about locals freely during our staff meeting, because 2 out of the 10 people in the meeting are Kuwaitis and the rest aren’t.
The person calling and evaluating the locals’ financial records is an expat who has full disclosure to local’s financial folders from A to Z. So I’m curious Mark, if I go to your wonderful country and work there, will I get hired in your government sector in this fashion? Deduct your salary, and have the time of my life questioning your finances? Will I be able to do that in Egypt or Lebanon as an expat?
Or how about the fact that I live in Asima and go to my local co-op on promotion day and find it fully packed like a pickle jar by expats that don’t even live in my area, turn the entire place into a mess, and we get queued for hours waiting and half the stuff we came shopping for is wiped out clean. That must be also improving the country.
All I got from your comment was that you want a Kuwaiti only super market because expats are messy and you don’t like waiting at cashier lines 👌🏻
And for the record: I’m mixed. But we wasn’t raised to go to another country and say, “we improved your country”, “you can’t live without us”, “we run your town”, because we know it more than you do, when the privileges that allow us to do those things are exactly that—privileges.
Kuwaitis and Expats form the “market” for Netflix here in Kuwait. There is clearly no slight here in Mark’s post against either.
In terms of a worldwide audience, the “market” is not significant and were it to be banned, it would not affect any Netflix executive’s dividends.
classic twat reply
Well it’s a fact that we’re insignificant in Netflix’ business as whole since losing Kuwait will only make a dent in their revenues. So get your facts straight or GTFO pls
“let’s be mature.”
Yeah let’s. I suggest we start by dropping this ridiculous ban hearing.
If it happens, most people would have moved on to other platforms and used a VPN or pirated Netflix shows to get Netflix exclusive content. What I meant was the ban will not affect Kuwait’s economic bottom line even the slightest. It will only affect people and their entertainment options, which the government probably won’t give a crap about if history is any indication.
lol @ kabuki theatre