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In the words of Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, the streaming giant is “just getting started” when it comes to expanding in Europe and beyond.
But the streaming giant’s international growth spurt also includes the realm of politics, as Netflix is announcing today that it’s hired Monique Meche as its new vice president of global public policy.
The role will see Meche lead Netflix’s government affairs operation across 190 countries, including the United States — an assignment she knows well after serving as a top executive at Amazon’s global policy unit. Her resume also includes similar work for Cisco and Intel.
Much of Netflix’s gains in recent months have come from abroad: The company now boasts 52 million international subscribers, according to its latest earnings numbers. With it, Netflix has plopped down more than $1.75 billion to invest in European content alone.
As it expands, though, Netflix increasingly must contend with greater regulatory scrutiny. That’s particularly the case in the European Union, where policymakers are weighing whether to force streaming giants like Netflix to devote upwards of 20 or 30 percent of their online catalogues to European-made content. Netflix has opposed such quotas.
Meanwhile, the region’s regulators have also explored levying new taxes on tech giants like Amazon, Facebook and Netflix. That’s part of a broader EU crackdown on U.S. tech giants for their business practices.
In Asia, meanwhile, Netflix has struggled in many countries to obtain programming rights. And in China, specifically, regulators had blocked the company from operating at all — until it brokered a deal this year with a subsidiary of Baidu.
One of Netflix’s longest wars, however, is in the United States: The streaming giant and its tech allies are still battling at the Federal Communications Commission over net neutrality. Netflix has urged the telecom agency to keep rules in place that treat internet providers similar to utilities.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
