Hollywood removes Netflix from its legal streaming site search engine
One of the world's most popular streaming sites doesn't show up in the WhereToWatch search results
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Netflix has been removed from the American film industry's search engine for legal streaming sites.
WhereToWatch, which was set up by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) in 2014, lets users search a range of legal streaming services for their favourite TV shows and films.
The idea was to provide internet users with a handy resource which would steer them away from illegal streams and downloads, protecting them from potential legal trouble and helping the studios at the same time.
However, as TorrentFreak reports, Netflix has been removed from the WhereToWatch search results, despite being the one of the most-used legal streaming services in the world.
Netflix results have also been removed from the UK equivalent of the site, FindAnyFilm, although some Netflix results are still available on GoWatchIt, the search engine which powers WhereToWatch.
FindAnyFilm will readily direct users to Amazon Instant Video, iTunes or Google Play links, but Netflix is notable in its absence.
The unusual absence is down to Netflix's retiring of its public API - as a spokesman said in 2014: "As Netflix continues to grow internationally, the emphasis of our engineering efforts is to satisfy a growing member base and a growing number of devices. To better focus our efforts and to align them with the needs of our global member base, we will be retiring the public API program."
That leaves the search engines slightly incomplete - if users want to find legal streams fast, they still have to visit multiple sites to conduct searches. Netflix's changes will no doubt be a thorn in the side of companies trying to build up good databases of legal content.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments