Main Highlights:
- Netflix employees organized the walkout in response to co-CEO Ted Sarandos’ comments on Dave Chappelle’s newly released special, “The Closer.”
- The corporation alleges that it terminated the employee in question due to suspicions that they may have divulged internal information.
- Earlier this month, as Netflix prepared to premiere “The Closer,” staffers expressed concern about the show’s potential for harming trans people.
- When Netflix published the show on October 5, staff and subscribers alike took to social media to express their displeasure with the streaming provider.
According to current and former Netflix employees with knowledge of the situation, the corporation terminated an employee who was the leader of the firm’s trans employee resource group and called for a walkout on October 20. The Verge was the first to break the news of the cancellation.
Netflix employees organized it in response to co-CEO Ted Sarandos‘ comments about Dave Chappelle’s recently released special, “The Closer,” broadcast on the network. The company claims that it terminated the employee in question because it had reasonable grounds to believe it had leaked internal information to third parties.
According to a Netflix representative, the firm has terminated an employee for revealing a secret and commercially sensitive information outside of the company. Even though the employee may have been motivated by disillusionment and hurt while working for Netflix, the firm thinks maintaining a culture of trust and transparency is essential.
In what appears to be internal analytics for “The Closer,” the stolen information was used in a Bloomberg piece that stated that Netflix spent $24.1 million on the one-off special. Between then and now, the company has committed $3.9 million on Bo Burnham’s recent comedy remarkable “Inside,” as well as $21.4 million in the highly anticipated nine-episode “Squid Game,” which is Netflix’s best-ever launch and has received rave reviews.
Netflix Employees’ concerns
Employees expressed concerns about the show’s potential for harmful anti-trans jokes earlier this month, as Netflix prepared to release “The Closer.” Chapelle goes so far as to declare his allegiance to “Team TERF,” which refers to trans-exclusionary radical feminists who conflate gender with biological sex and are opposed to the transgender rights movement.
Despite Netflix’s assurances, staff and subscribers flocked to social media to express their dissatisfaction with Netflix after the show was released on the streaming service on October 5. The day after the episode aired, Terra Field, a trans-Netflix software developer, tweeted a popular thread regarding the impact of anti-trans speech.
“Promoting TERF ideology (which is what we did by giving it a platform yesterday) directly harms trans people; it is not some neutral act. This is not an argument with two sides. It is an argument with trans people who want to be alive and people who don’t want us to be,” Field stated.
Field and two other Netflix workers were suspended shortly after attending an uninvited director-level meeting without permission. Next, an investigation discovered that Field did not seek to join the discussion with malice a director provided the connection, leading her to believe she could do so. The Field’s status was restored the following day.
Some Netflix employees, on the other hand, grew outraged, especially after co-CEO Ted Sarandos stated in an email to them that “content on screen does not necessarily translate instantaneously into real-world misery.” According to him, “Netflix has a lot of good shows,” such as “Sex Education” and “Orange Is the New Black.” “Control Z” and Hannah Gadsby are also good shows,” he added. The diversification of the content team itself is a vital component of this strategy. “
In response to Sarandos’ attempt to depict her as a spokesperson for Netflix’s LGBT tolerance, Hannah Gadsby, a lesbian comedian best known for her Emmy-winning Netflix special “Nanette,” took to Twitter to express her displeasure with the approach.
“You didn’t pay me nearly enough to deal with the real-world consequences of the hate speech dog-whistling you refuse to acknowledge, Ted,” she captioned the post on Instagram.
As Netflix fuels the fire by firing one organizer of the next transgender walkout, some users share links to cancelnetflix.com, which takes users to Netflix’s help page to cancel memberships.
