Netflix Inc has removed two episodes of spy drama Pine Gap from its streaming service in the Philippines after the Southeast Asian country rejected scenes involving a map used by China to assert its claims to the South China Sea.
The Philippines on Monday asked Netflix to remove certain episodes of the six-part Australian series, saying that the map depicted on the show was a breach of its sovereignty.
The second and third episodes of the show were no longer available in the Philippines by late Monday, with Netflix announcing on its platform that those episodes had been “removed by government demand.”
Photo: Reuters
It did not elaborate.
Netflix did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
China lays claim to most of the South China Sea waters within its so-called “nine-dash line.”
Taiwan claims the same area, and the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam also have claims.
After a thorough review, the Philippines’ movie classification board ruled that certain episodes of Pine Gap were “unfit for public exhibition,” the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
Earlier this year Netflix removed Pine Gap from its services in Vietnam following a similar complaint from the country’s broadcast authorities.
The Philippine films board, acting on the department’s complaint, handed down its ruling on Sept. 28.
It was not clear why the decision was only made public now.
The department said that the board noted that the appearance of the map was “no accident, as it was consciously designed and calculated to specifically convey a message that China’s nine-dash line legitimately exists.”
The board believes that “such portrayal is a crafty attempt to perpetuate and memorialize in the consciousness of the present generation of viewers and the generations to come the illegal nine-dash line,” the department said.
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