It Took New Laws, but Netflix Social Is Available in the US Finally

After quite a bit of effort, Netflix is finally able to offer the Facebook integration everyone else has had for years. Netflix itself has had Facebook integration for more than a year, but not in the US.

Here, a particular law made it impossible for the company to share the viewing habits of its users, even if they were willing to do it. Netflix managed to get the law changed and now it's offering Netflix Social in the US as well.

"Starting today, Netflix members in the U.S. can share their favorite shows and movies on Netflix with friends by connecting to Facebook and agreeing to share," Netflix explained.

"By default, sharing will only happen on Netflix. You'll see what titles your friends have watched in a new 'Watched by your friends' row and what they have rated four or five stars in a new 'Friends’ Favorites' row," it added.

Subscribers will be able to choose what to share, though it's an opt-out system, i.e. they have to click a "Don't Share This" button. They can disable sharing altogether though from their account settings. They can also enable Facebook sharing there.