{"id":140647,"date":"2024-09-23T23:43:13","date_gmt":"2024-09-23T23:43:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/23\/home-ministry-probing-netflix-for-alleged-visa-violations-racial-discrimination\/"},"modified":"2024-09-23T23:43:13","modified_gmt":"2024-09-23T23:43:13","slug":"home-ministry-probing-netflix-for-alleged-visa-violations-racial-discrimination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/23\/home-ministry-probing-netflix-for-alleged-visa-violations-racial-discrimination\/","title":{"rendered":"Home Ministry Probing Netflix for Alleged Visa Violations, Racial Discrimination"},"content":{"rendered":"
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India\u00a0is investigating the business practices of US streaming giant\u00a0Netflix’s local operations, including allegations of\u00a0visa\u00a0violations\u00a0and\u00a0racial\u00a0discrimination, according to a government\u00a0email\u00a0sent to a former executive.<\/p>\n

The details of\u00a0India’s investigation were included in an email dated July 20, reviewed by Reuters, which was written by a home ministry official to\u00a0Netflix’s<\/a>\u00a0former director of business and legal affairs for\u00a0India, Nandini Mehta, who left the company in 2020.<\/p>\n

“This is regarding\u00a0visa\u00a0and tax\u00a0violations\u00a0concerns regarding the business practices of\u00a0Netflix\u00a0in\u00a0India,” wrote\u00a0Indian official Deepak Yadav from the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) of the home ministry in New Delhi.<\/p>\n

“We have received certain details in this regard w.r.t (with respect to) the stated company’s conduct,\u00a0visa\u00a0violation, illegal structures, tax evasion and other malpractices including incidents of\u00a0racial\u00a0discrimination\u00a0that company has been engaged in while conducting its business in\u00a0India,” he added.<\/p>\n

In an\u00a0emailed statement, Mehta said she is pursuing a lawsuit in US against\u00a0Netflix\u00a0for alleged wrongful termination as well as\u00a0racial\u00a0and gender\u00a0discrimination\u00a0– charges the company denies.<\/p>\n

Mehta said she welcomed the\u00a0Indian investigation and hopes the authorities make their findings public, but did not elaborate on the allegations made by the government.<\/p>\n

Yadav declined to comment, saying he was not authorised to speak to media. The FRRO and\u00a0India’s home ministry did not respond to Reuters queries.<\/p>\n

A\u00a0Netflix\u00a0spokesperson said the company was “unaware of an investigation by the\u00a0Indian government.”<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Indian official’s\u00a0email\u00a0shows\u00a0growing scrutiny of\u00a0Netflix\u00a0in\u00a0India, where it has roughly 10 million users and which it considers a growth market where companies target affluent people in the nation of 1.4 billion people.<\/p>\n

Over the years, the US streaming giant has developed more local content featuring Bollywood<\/a>\u00a0actors.<\/p>\n

It has also often faced heat in\u00a0India\u00a0over its content deemed insensitive by some users. This month, it was forced to add new disclaimers to an\u00a0Indian series about a plane hijack after social media outrage and government anger over what they said was Muslim hijackers being shown as Hindus.<\/p>\n

Seeking Documents, US Lawsuit<\/h3>\n

While it is known that\u00a0Netflix\u00a0has since 2023 faced an\u00a0Indian tax demand – which it is challenging – the existence of a broader investigation into allegations including\u00a0visa\u00a0compliance and\u00a0racial\u00a0discrimination\u00a0has not been previously reported.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Indian government’s\u00a0email\u00a0did not elaborate which agencies are looking at issues concerning\u00a0Netflix. The FRRO works closely with home ministry’s Intelligence Bureau, the domestic intelligence agency, and is the main agency looking into foreigners’\u00a0visa\u00a0compliance and permissions to visit so-called “sensitive” regions.<\/p>\n

Last year,\u00a0India\u00a0accused Chinese smartphone player Vivo <\/a>and its\u00a0Indian affiliates for breaching\u00a0visa\u00a0rules by visiting certain “sensitive” regions without permission.\u00a0India\u00a0classifies parts of certain states such as Jammu and Kashmir in north and Sikkim in east as restricted areas.<\/p>\n

The FRRO also acts as a liaison in matters related to foreigners with other government offices.<\/p>\n

Mehta worked at the company’s Los Angeles and Mumbai offices from April 2018 to April 2020, her LinkedIn <\/a>profile\u00a0shows.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Indian government\u00a0email\u00a0asked her to provide “details\/documents” as she was a former legal executive of the company.<\/p>\n

In 2021, Mehta sued\u00a0Netflix\u00a0in Los Angeles County Superior Court in California for alleged wrongful termination and\u00a0racial\u00a0and gender\u00a0discrimination, among other things, US court filings show.<\/p>\n

Netflix\u00a0has in US court denied “each and every allegation” and said in its statement that Mehta was fired for repeatedly using her corporate credit card for tens of thousands of dollars in personal expenses.<\/p>\n

Mehta said she will “continue to fight for justice.” Her case is set for a status hearing on Monday in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Thomson Reuters 2024<\/em><\/p>\n

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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India\u00a0is investigating the business practices of US streaming giant\u00a0Netflix’s local operations, including allegations of\u00a0visa\u00a0violations\u00a0and\u00a0racial\u00a0discrimination, according to a government\u00a0email\u00a0sent to a former executive. The details of\u00a0India’s investigation were included in an email dated July 20, reviewed by Reuters, which was written by a home ministry official to\u00a0Netflix’s\u00a0former director of business and legal affairs for\u00a0India, Nandini Mehta, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":140648,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.gadgets360cdn.com\/large\/netflix_1717571827016.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[607],"tags":[494,3025,148,22912,273,1181,112194,2611,112193,14445,4306,18057,15456],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140647"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140647"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":140649,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140647\/revisions\/140649"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}