Netflix India recently launched the popular historical show Vikings on its platform. However, there is something unusual going on with the show.

All the scenes from the show containing nudity, violence, and even meat are being censored.
Yes, meat!
This censorship came into notice after journalist Aroon Deep’s Tweet about the same started doing the rounds on social media. In the Tweet, the platform blurred out the images of two cooked pigs in the episode titled “Murder Most Foul” from the show.
Netflix India has censored meat (among quite a few other things) from Vikings. Same scene from India and Italy. pic.twitter.com/NXCE9Kzmh4
— Aroon Deep (@AroonDeep) May 31, 2020
But turns out, viewers had been noticing this kind of censorship in the show since January.
@NetflixIndia Vikings censored on Netflix …. is this Netflix or pvr now? Used to love Netflix for being uncensored and not ruining content…. pic.twitter.com/tl6ZLfbVMI
— Eashan Parekh (@EP2511) January 28, 2020
@NetflixIndia still watching vikings s5 e12 and in one scene cooked meat on the table is censored…?what is up with that! pic.twitter.com/d0vFDxU8aH
— Sanjay vg (@SJvg21) April 25, 2020
After this, a person from the UAE showed the uncensored original version of the scene.
This is from UAE. An Arab country. Not censored here. FYI https://t.co/J68hN0fguE pic.twitter.com/HmkFFIEpv2
— SID (@ssaig) June 1, 2020
Here’s what Netflix had to say about the issue:
Netflix customer care’s comment on this: pic.twitter.com/1ivwhlEq3f
— Aroon Deep (@AroonDeep) May 31, 2020
The reason the unlikely censorship may have happened was because the streaming giant is airing the version of the show that premiered on the History TV18 channel in India. It was hence censored as per TV standards which permeated into the online streaming platform.
For some time now, the government has also been pressurizing streaming platforms to create a quasi-judicial content regulation body. And this is not the first time that Netflix has come under the limelight for its censorship. The platform was talked about after it censored Jammu and Kashmir map from comedian Hasan Minhaj’s comedy show Patriot Act.