Russian culture minister Vladimir Medinsky has accused the U.S. government of using Netflix as a nefarious tool to control the minds of people around the world.
“They understand how to enter everyone’s homes by getting into every television with the help of Netflix and through this TV into the heads of everyone on Earth,” Medinsky told Russian online news site Rambler News Service. “But we [in Russia] don’t grasp this.”
Karen Shakhnazarov, head of the state-run film studio Mosfilm, defended the culture minister’s position, arguing he was right to defend local companies competing with Netflix.
But Medinsky’s critics were scathing.
“Naah, actually it was created to get into the bed of every person on Earth,” quipped Karina Orlova, Washington correspondent for the radio station Echo of Moscow. Writing on Facebook she advised Medinsky to “chill, Minister. And watch some Netflix.”
Since Netflix launched in Russia earlier this year there have been calls from some quarters to regulate or restrict the company’s operation in order to protect local streaming services from outside competition.
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