Netflix pulls an episode of ‘Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj’ in Saudi Arabia after govt. files complaint
Wednesday, January 2, 2019 at 1:39AM The second episode of Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj criticized Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the Saudi Arabia government’s reaction to the death of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. The contradictory claims and denials that surrounded the story drew angry reactions from the public and this is what the episode wanted to center on.
Minhaj joked on the show that this was “the most unbelievable cover story since Blake Shelton won sexiest man alive.” But it seems the Saudi government wasn’t in on the joke. The government reportedly told Netflix the episode violated the country’s cybercrime laws and asked for it to be removed. The cited law effectively states that criticizing the Saudi government through any kind of digital medium is a criminal act. The streaming service complied and took it off the service in Saudi Arabia. It is, however, still viewable elsewhere. The clip is also still watchable on the series’ YouTube channel, even in Saudi Arabia. It’s unclear at this point if Google/Alphabet (parent company of YouTube) was also contacted about the clip.