Netflix has removed Patriot Act with Hasan Minhajs Saudi Arabia-themed episode from its platform in the country in response to a legal request.
The episode in question was the shows second when it premiered last October. Minhaj spoke out against the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi last year, which he called the “biggest tragedy of the [Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman] era.” Although the discussion remains available on the shows official YouTube page—along with an update on the story from December—it is no longer available to stream on Netflix in Saudi Arabia.
A source with knowledge of the legal demand said the Saudi government sent the company a legal request in December to take the episode down. In a statement, a Netflix representative said, “We strongly support artistic freedom and removed this episode only in Saudi Arabia after we had received a valid legal request—and to comply with local law.” CNN reports that Saudi Arabias cybercrime law bars “production, preparation, transmission, or storage of material impinging on public order, religious values, public morals, and privacy, through the information network or computers.” Breach of the law can result in up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $800,000, CNN reports.
As Netflix scales to more markets worldwide in its plan for global-streaming domination, such conflicts may be somewhat inevitable. Human Rights Watch executive director Sarah Leah Whitson condemned the streamers decision on Twitter, where she wrote, “Netflixs claim to support artistic freedom means nothing if it bows to demands of government officials who believe in no freedom for their citizens – not artistic, not political, not comedic . . . Every artist whose work appears on Netflix should be outraged that the company has agreed to censor a comedy show because the thin-skinned royals in Saudi complained about it.”
When Patriot Act first debuted, it was pieces like the Saudi Arabia examination that excited Hasan Minhaj most. As he told Vanity Fair in an interview at the time, “Were gonna be doing international news stories and sort of addressing things that sometimes exist in the white space that people dont talk about. Or theyre like, Its better to just talk about whats happening here, domestically, this week. Thats what excites me about the Saudi Arabia episode, is that take of people being like, Yes, finally, someone is saying that.”
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Get Vanity Fairs HWD NewsletterSign up for essential industry and award news from Hollywood.Laura BradleyLaura Bradley is a Hollywood writer for VanityFair.com.
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