Watch out: Netflix wants to punish VPN users!

In April 2021, Netflix announced to have reached the 208 million subscribers worldwide. Even though its growth is slowing, the streaming service is far ahead of the competition, although Disney +, with its 108 million followers, is chasing it. In France, no less than 8 million people have subscribed to the broadcasters of Stranger Things and The Witcher. The company indeed offers, like the two mentioned just now, many original programs which are available worldwide at the same time for all subscribers. On the other hand, for all the other films and series available in addition, the choice is very different from country to country. For example, it is fairly well known that it is the Netflix American which contains the most programs.

Which means that you can also have very different catalogs depending on your latitude. Lovers of Asian cinema will have a large selection of Japanese films and anime (and erotic films) on that of the Land of the Rising Sun for example. It is also increasingly common for French films to be available on Netflix abroad without going through the dark rooms. We can take recent example of The Cloud by Just Philippot, released in theaters in France on June 16. If he was entitled to the same treatment in China and Spain, he is streaming on Netflix in all other countries of the world. These two obvious facts can therefore lead users to want to look elsewhere and use a VPN to achieve their goals.

Also read: Netflix, Prime, Disney +… Programs from all over the world with Cyberghost VPN!

Borderless VPN

Let’s quickly come back to what a VPN is, acronym for ” Virtual Private Network “. This private virtual network is therefore a program that encrypts your connection and incidentally connects your IP address to another remote computer, which will give the illusion to the network that you are where this lure is located. You will therefore appear as if you were in the country of your choice. In the case of Netflix, by giving the illusion to your network that you are in Japan, it is therefore the catalog of this country that will be offered to you. Practical, but problematic for broadcasters and program producers. Taking the example of The Cloud, imagine the shortfall if all French subscribers watch it streaming instead of going to the cinema. Under external pressure and in order not to lose the support of certain production houses, the American service had to harden its fight against VPN users, not without some very annoying hiccups which have the bad idea of ​​multiplying recently.

Reserved lounge

American service does indeed the war against those who try to fool the localization of their position. When an anomaly is detected, you are sanctioned and therefore only have access to programs exclusive to Netflix, but not to the rest. A pretty smart way to do it rather than blocking the account entirely. Except that lately, she’s been the victim of many hiccups. Blame it on the creators of VPNs who have sometimes changed the way they work. Some people are now usingIP addresses that belong to residential landlines. This trick is supposed to be enough to deceive Netflix since these addresses are identified to customers of service providers. Except that, in an excess of zeal, the American service continued its hunt, thinking it could still make the difference between real and false subscribers.

Bad pick and more and more customers who have not asked for anything find themselves amputated from part of the catalog as if they were using a VPN when this is not the case at all. The discontent is mounting more and more while the victims are more numerous every day. The falsely sanctioned were requested by Netflix to turn to customer service to resolve the problem. However, the errors should not continue for too long. There is nothing more fickle than a disgruntled customer, as we all know, and subscribers could easily decide to look elsewhere. It must also be said that VPNs for their part will no doubt very quickly find countermeasures to this witch hunt with servers that change their IPs on a recurring basis. War is declared !