Iraq has blocked access to IMDb after its Ministry of Communications said the site hosted material it considered inappropriate and immoral, according to a subsidiary company official quoted by Shafaq News.
The account published by Shafaq News said Nabil Abdul-Baki, the director general of Al-Salam Company, a Ministry of Communications subsidiary, confirmed that the site had been blocked because of content the ministry deemed offensive to Iraq's traditions and values. He said the move was not random, but followed what he described as continuous monitoring.
IMDb, the online database best known for film, television and related entertainment listings, has long been used by audiences and industry workers to look up titles, cast lists and ratings. The excerpt supplied in the evidence package says the ministry objected to what it called degrading content and specifically cited pornographic films and immoral pages as the reason for the block.
The case adds to a wider pattern in which state institutions in the region restrict access to online services for content they say violates social or cultural standards. In this instance, the evidence packet does not include a formal government decree, a technical explanation of the block, or a response from IMDb itself. It does, however, show the ministry-linked company presenting the decision as deliberate and based on ongoing review rather than a one-off complaint.
The distinction matters because the public explanation rests on a statement from a ministry subsidiary, not on a court ruling or a published regulatory order. That means the verifiable record in the packet is limited to the block, the justification offered by Abdul-Baki and the ministry's view that the site promoted material it considered harmful to Iraq's traditions and values.
The supplied report also identifies IMDb's broader role as a database for films, television shows, podcasts, videos and video games. That context helps explain why a block on the platform could be noticed beyond Iraq's entertainment sector. For many users, IMDb functions less like a streaming service than a reference tool, so a restriction on it has implications for everyday browsing, media research and industry reference work.
No casualty, legal or financial claims are attached to the event. The issue in the available evidence is a content policy dispute: a government-linked company says the site was restricted because it promoted offensive or immoral material, while the underlying technical and administrative steps are not explained in the excerpt. On the evidence provided, that is the extent of the confirmed record.
