Fact Check: Netflix & Amazon Prime giving free subscriptions during Coronavirus lockdown?

As the nationwide lockdown was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, people started to look for means and ways to pass their time for 21 days at home. This also led to people subscribing to OTT platforms in order to watch TV shows and movies in the meantime. This also brought forward a rumour across all social media that Netflix and Amazon Prime, two of the leading OTT sites in India, are giving a free subscription in light of the Coronavirus lockdown.

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Netflix and Amazon Prime giving free subscriptions?

Claim:

A Twitter user tweeted that Netflix is giving off a free subscription till April 31, looking at the fact that people will be under the Coronavirus lockdown for the upcoming days. The tweet also shared that Amazon Prime is also giving out free subscriptions till April 31. Here is the tweet:

This also started doing the rounds on Whatsapp as people started sending out these messages to their friends and family. Along with the Whatspp message, there is a link given which will help them with the free subscription. The message claims that these sites are giving free pass to their platform during the period of isolation.

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Rating: False

The news is fake. There have been no announcements made by the official Twitter or Instagram accounts of Netflix US or Netflix India about free subscriptions. The social media portals of Amazon Prime Video also do not have any claims of free subscription. It is also important to note that the site link opens a warning that the site is deceptive. The page shows that Google Safe Browsing has detected that the site is trying to trick people in making them believe that they are other websites. The tweet also claims that the subscription is till April 31, while the month of April only has 30 days. 

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Origin:

This rumour started spreading after the Twitterati believed that such a free subscription is given by Netflix or by Amazon Prime. It slowly spread through Whatsapp as well as Facebook. A leading news portal also came in contact with the officials at Netflix India, one of whom claimed that there have been no changes made in the streaming service and the subscription rates of Netflix. Therefore, the news of Netflix giving away free subscription and Amazon Prime's free subscription is fake.

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Many people tried to search on Google about the same. The searches for Netflix giving out free subscriptions peaked on March 25, sloped down immediately, only to rise again. The zigzag pattern shows how people tried to find the truth behind this rumour.

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