Censorship has been a touchy topic in India and mainly when it comes to censoring the digital medium. Remember the uproar that rose when John Oliver slammed Hotstar for "self-censoring" an episode critical of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government over the Citizenship Amendment Act and his handling of the protests against it. Well, a netizen has now pointed out how Netflix India seems to be doing some censorship of content too. In a Twitter thread showing how in one of the episodes of the historical drama Viking, patches were blurred out which featured two cooked pigs. Pankaj Tripathi Speaks Up About Censorship in Digital Space, Says ‘Some People Just Want to Spread Sensationalism’.
Not just this, several viewers have also noticed that scenes from the show containing nudity and meat were censored from the platform. An image of the photo by journalist Aroon Deep has been going viral on Twitter which compares the show's same episode in India and Italy, showing the blurred out portions. As per reports, Viking season 5, episode 12 is around 46 minutes long but in India, it's around 42 and a half minutes due to the censored bits.
Sharing the same, he wrote, "Netflix India has censored meat (among quite a few other things) from Vikings. Same scene from India and Italy." The shared image also incurred a response from the streaming giant, which stated, "Netflix remains sensitive to the preferences, needs and local regulatory requirements in the markets where we operate. We comply if we receive written legal demand by the local governing authority."Netflix, Hotstar to Censor Content in India to Avoid Government Regulation, Says Report.
Check Out the Twitter Thread Here:
Netflix customer care's comment on this: pic.twitter.com/1ivwhlEq3f
— Aroon Deep (@AroonDeep) May 31, 2020
Twitter User Pointing Out Netflix's Blurred Scene:
@NetflixIndia still watching vikings s5 e12 and in one scene cooked meat on the table is censored...?what is up with that! pic.twitter.com/d0vFDxU8aH
— Sanjay vg (@SJvg21) April 25, 2020
This is not the first time that Netflix has come under scrutiny for censorship as previously, the platform had hit the news for censoring the Jammu and Kashmir map from Hasan Minhaj's show Patriot Act.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 02, 2020 02:37 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).