Netflix backtracks after new password-sharing rules spark outrage
SINAR DAILY REPORTER05 Feb 2023 04:19pm
The French rapper Kery James acts during filming on the set of Banlieusard 2 in the forest of Bandia in Sindia, region of Thies west center of Senegal on Dec 17. Banlieusard 2 is scheduled for release on Netflix later this year. The American streaming giant is making its mark in francophone West Africa, part of a broader surge in audiovisual production in the region following years of sluggishness. Netflix today appear to have backtracked from planned new password-sharing regulations following a backlash from streamers. - AFP
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Yahoo!life reported that the initial set of guidelines which went viral earlier this week sent users into "furious tweet storms" and threatening to cancel their subscriptions.
The posted rules are said to include a requirement for all devices using the same account to be linked to the same Wi-Fi, for all devices to log in and stream on that Wi-Fi every 31 days, and for a user to set a primary location, which has to be a television.
This left regular travellers, college students and many more demanding to know how the company would accommodate them.
Netflix is now alleging that those rules only apply to account holders in Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru, and that they went live in other countries by mistake.
“For a brief time yesterday, a help center article containing information that is only applicable to Chile, Costa Rica and Peru went live in other countries,” a spokesperson for Netflix told The Streamable.
“We have since updated it.”
Those rules, which had been posted on Netflix's website, have been removed, according to the publication.
Netflix is currently testing anti-account sharing features in a number of Latin American countries but, according to the streamer, most options have resulted in "significant pushback" from users.
The spokesperson went on to explain that if the streaming giant does elect to implement those, or any other restrictions, in the United States, it wouldn't do so without first communicating the details to its customers.
