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Netflix will be required to include Kremlin propaganda due to Russian government legislation seeking to regulate communications.
This legislation could also affect other streaming services that operate in the Russian territory, such as HBO Max and Amazon Prime Video.
Piervy Kanal, one of those that would be part of said legislation, is a channel made up of allies of the government.
On December 29, it was announced that as of March 1, Neftlix and other streaming platforms operating in Russian territory must broadcast Kremlin propaganda if they intend to continue offering their services in the country.
Therefore, as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, these measures taken as part of the regulation of communications by Roskomnadzor took on new implications, since the law states that, from now on, the platforms that are operating within the country must broadcast pro-Russian propaganda, from the mandatory addition of 20 federal television channels.
Among these channels is Piervy Kanal (First Channel), which is known to function as a mouthpiece for the Kremlin, because its board of directors is made up of allies of the president: Sergey Naryshkinchief of intelligence and alexey gromov, the first deputy chief of staff. The latter has among its obligations to supervise the content of the platforms and enforce state propaganda.
For this reason, the new law would be an attack on freedom of expression, since not only Netflix, which must include Kremlin propaganda on its platform, but also HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV + are in this predicament.
This law applies from the creation of the “registry of audiovisual services”, and only for platforms that have more than 100 thousand daily users. Therefore, they are obliged to comply with Russian legislation.
It is believed that this strategy was previously devised with the aim of promoting disinformation campaigns on Russian territory using the platforms. In addition to this, other mandatory channels would be included for Netflix and the other streaming services if they want to continue operating in Russia from tomorrow on March 1, such as NTV and Spaswhich is a channel of the Orthodox Church.
Because of this, the company shared its point of view to Variety about the situation, with which she was clear and forceful, denying having plans to integrate those channels into her programming:
“Given the current situation, we have no plans to add these channels to our service. […] The law is yet to be fully implemented, despite speculation that it will be enforced on March 1.”
However, in a query Catherine Iordachean expert researcher on Netflix, declared for a media outlet that Netflix’s exit is unlikely, perhaps due to the recent merger between the company and Russia’s National Media Group (NMG), which owns 20 percent of Piervy Kanal.
Let us remember, finally, that the president of Ukraine, Volodímir Zelenski, 44, gained much of his popularity because he starred in a series for the Netflix platform, called ‘Servant of the people’ or ‘Servant of the people’, so that this could be another strategy that seeks to implement new measures to silence freedom of expression and impose pro-Russian propaganda even in the soup.
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