Where competitors like Disney and WarnerMedia largely seek to export their U.S.-made content, Netflix is more interested in producing its international content locally. One of the most important tasks of Netflix’s public policy team is working with local producers and government officials to create ratings systems for its content that vary by country, a proactive means of heading off direct government intervention. In late 2018, the company bowed to pressure in Saudi Arabia when officials demanded that it remove an episode of Hasan Minhaj’s Patriot Act in which he criticized the country’s leader, Mohammed bin Salman. Netflix relented “to comply with local law,” according to the company’s statement. While the company does not have a lobbying office in the Middle East, that’s likely to change.
From The Netflix Lobbying Machine, Hollywood Reporter. 2019-08-09
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