Drilon opposes MTRCB plan to regulate Netflix, other streaming services

Senate minority leader Franklin Drilon on Friday said he strongly opposes the plan of the Movies and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) to regulate streaming platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.

Instead of regulating, Drilon said MTRCB should continue to allow them and other media to self-regulate their content.

“I am opposed to it. It’s very impractical. There are thousands of shows on Netflix alone—how will MTRCB review each one? Can the MTRCB review every single content that can be accessed through the Internet?” Drilon asked.

“What will they do about virtual private networks that allow users to access content from other countries? If they insist on it, then taxpayers will be paying MTRCB only to stream movies and shows 24/7, 365 days,” he added.

With this kind of set up, Drilon said reliance on self-regulating mechanisms will suffice.

 “The MTRCB is a martial law creation. It has been institutionalized as a tool for censorship. It is unfortunate that MTRCB has not been able to evolve and rise above its martial law origins inclined towards censorship and has not been a driver of self-regulation in the industry,” the minority leader said.

“It should focus its efforts on being an instrument to improve the quality of content being produced, instead of being a tool for censorship,” he added.

“I’d like to believe that the industry today has achieved the maturity that Presidential Decree (PD) 1986 sought to see. They can ably self-regulate their content,” he said.

The senator recalled that the MTRCB was created at a time when the movie and television industry was on the brink of economic collapse and unbridled sex and violence in movies were the norm.

He said the MTRCB was created with the understanding that “through the participation of industry leaders, it can eventually self-regulate after it has demonstrated its maturity, self-reliance, and dependability.

The goal, Drilon said, has always been self-regulation by the industry.

Netflix, on the other hand, has self-regulation mechanisms that are not present in, and are perhaps, more effective than the regulation or classification in television, he added.

So far, he said, Netflix classifies shows based on whether these are for General Patronage, Parental Guidance, 7 and above, 16 and up, R-18, and so on.

“The ratings are very specific.  Upon subscription to Netflix, the parents can set what content their children can view. It has mechanisms that limit children’s access - a feature that free TV does not have,” he said.

“If the platform is able to effectively self-regulate and has installed features through which access, particularly by certain age groups can be limited, then there is no role left for the MTRCB to play,” Drilon said.

The plan to regulate Netflix and other streaming sites was raised by MTRCB officials during the Senate Committee on Trade and Commerce hearing on the proposed Internet Transactions Act on Thursday.

MTRCB’s legal affairs division chief Jonathan Presquito said the agency sees the need to proceed with the regulation especially during the COVID-19 lockdown as more people subscribe to movie streaming services to keep their sanity intact.

“Streaming services like Netflix are video-on-demand platforms. We have to regulate those platforms,” Presquito said, adding that there should be a policy that will allow and guide the MTRCB to regulate content on video streaming platforms.

Drilon, however, pointed out that the Constitution prohibits censorship on content, as it is tantamount to prior restraint and infringes on the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of speech and expression.

He also explained that while the court upheld the power of the MTRCB to regulate and even impose some prior restraint on radio and television shows, the environment through which these streaming services operate is much different than TV and radio.

READ MORE: MTRCB eyes authority to regulate online streaming services such as Netflix