Netflix pulled an episode of Patriot Act With Hasan Minhaj in Saudi Arabia following a legal threat from the government over a segment in which Minhaj criticized U.S. ties to the regime and mocked Saudi attempts to explain the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The Saudi Communications and Information Technology Commission charged that the content violated the kingdom’s cyber-crime laws. “We strongly support artistic freedom worldwide and only removed this episode in Saudi Arabia after we had received a valid legal request – and to comply with local law,” said Netflix in a statement. The Saudi government did not, however, request that the episode be removed from YouTube, where it is still available to view. In response to all of the above, Minhaj posted the following on Twitter: “Clearly the best way to stop people from watching something is to ban it, make it trend online, and then leave it up on YouTube.”
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