No, Netflix does not crack down on password sharing in the US.

UPDATE (02/03/2023): Netflix was hit with a backlash on social media this week after a help center article posted on the company’s website presented a set of recommendations to stop sharing passwords with all users around the world, including USA. However, the company now says it published those rules in error.

“For a short time yesterday, a help center article containing information that only applies to Chile, Costa Rica and Peru was published in other countries. We’ve since updated it,” a Netflix spokesperson said in a statement to VERIFY.

January 19 company announced that it plans to resolve the password exchange issue for users outside of Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru by March 31, the end of the first quarter. Netflix has yet to release details on how it will proceed with these plans in the US. The original story remains posted below.

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Netflix has over 221 million subscribers worldwide. That’s more than any other streaming platform, including Disney+ and HBO Max.

Reed Hastings, co-founder and CEO of Netflix, has long acknowledged that far more people than its 221 million subscribers are actually viewing the streaming service’s content due to password sharing. In fact, two studies published during the coronavirus pandemic found that nearly a third of Netflix subscribers allow people who live outside their family to use their account.

Recent headlines are warning people that Netflix will start cracking down on password sharing, requiring more password hints and charging extra for additional users – and some subscribers based in the United States (Here, HereAnd Here) express their concerns on social media.

Is Netflix testing ways to crack down on password sharing in the United States?

• Changyi Long, Director of Innovation at Netflix
• Netflix representative
• Independent Verification of US Netflix User Logins

No, Netflix is ​​not testing password disclosure controls in the US. Now this is happening only in Chile, Costa Rica and Peru.

The controversy surrounding the password-sharing ban arose after Netflix’s director of product innovation, Changi Long, posted a press release on the streaming service’s website on March 16 titled “Pay to share Netflix outside of your family.”

In the press release, Long explains that Netflix will begin testing two new features that charge subscribers to share their accounts.

As part of the first new feature, Netflix subscribers with a standard and premium plan will be able to add “additional accounts” for two people they don’t live with for about $3 per member. In a second new feature, Netflix subscribers with basic, standard, and premium plans can allow people who share their account to transfer profile information to either a new account or a “sub account.”

Long makes it clear in the press release that Netflix is ​​testing these features in Chile, Costa Rica and Peru, not the United States.

“We will work to understand the usefulness of these two features for members in these three countries before making changes anywhere else in the world,” Long wrote.

A Netflix spokesperson also told VERIFY that these tests will not be conducted in the US.

“We really want to see what lessons we can learn from testing this in Chile, Peru and Costa Rica before we even consider going anywhere else, but we can say affirmatively that no, the US is not in plans,” the spokesperson said. said.

VERIFY independently checked whether Netflix encourages users in the US to pay extra when streaming to accounts outside of their household, and we were able to log in with no problems.

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