As per the latest government requests, these media and technology companies are reducing online video bit rates due to the increase in streaming demand.

To avoid congestion and delay in service as millions of people are forced to remain in their homes, social media and tech giants such as Amazon and Instagram have been throttling the quality of their streaming services. Disney’s recently released streaming service Disney+ announced this weekend that, upon its release in Europe this Tuesday, it would also comply to these restrictions.

In a prepared statement, Facebook announced: “To help alleviate any potential network congestion, we will temporarily reduce bit rates for videos on Facebook and Instagram in Europe… we are committed to working with our partners to manage any bandwidth constraints during this period of heavy demand, while also ensuring people are able to remain connected using Facebook apps and services during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Meanwhile, this same technique used in Europe seems to be prompting similar actions in India and Israel. India has just moved to standard definition streaming, and Israel will aid data congestion by slowing video quality as well.