Netflix Backtracks on Password Sharing Rules Following Internet Backlash

Streamers were furious over the guidelines that went live earlier this week.

Netflix is backtracking on its new password usage rules after an initial set of guidelines went viral earlier this week, sending users into furious tweet storms and threatening to cancel their subscriptions.

The posted rules included a requirement for all devices using the same account to be linked to the same Wi-Fi, for all devices to log in and stream on that Wi-Fi every 31 days, and for a user to set a primary location, which has to be a television, leaving regular travellers, college students, and many more demanding to know how the company would accommodate them.

Related: What To Know About Netflix’s Password Sharing Crackdown: New Rules, Costs and More

Now, the company is alleging that those rules only apply to account holders in Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru, and that they went live in other countries by mistake. “For a brief time yesterday, a help center article containing information that is only applicable to Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru, went live in other countries,” a spokesperson for Netflix told The Streamable, adding,“We have since updated it.” Those rules, which had been posted on Netflix's website, have been removed, according to the publication.

Netflix is currently testing anti-account sharing features in a number of Latin American countries but, according to the streamer, most options have resulted in "significant pushback" from users. The spokesperson went on to explain that if the streaming giant does elect to implement those, or any other restrictions, in the United States, it wouldn't do so without first communicating the details to its customers.