Perhaps heeding the saying, “go woke, go broke,” streaming giant Netflix has updated its corporate culture with a memo taking a new direction on employees working to silence artistic expression.
Parents were outraged back in 2020 when Netflix approved the airing of the movie Cuties that sexualized preteen girls, and the streaming service saw a massive spike in cancellations during the backlash.
But this year, the company went even farther down the path to woke, left-wingery by allowing LGBTQ employees to mount protests over comedian Dave Chappelle’s comedy special.
Among his many points made during 2021 special, Chappelle insisted that “gender is a fact.” That proclamation infuriated a group of transgender employees.
Soon, transgender Netflix employees soon began agitating inside the company to force Netflix to cancel its commitments to Chappelle and to delete any programing he had made.
Netflix did not bow to its activist employees and lived up to its contract with Chappelle, but it also did not rebuke its employees for organizing against the comedian.
But now, in the wake of an attack on Chappelle during a live show in Los Angeles, Netflix is taking a harder line against employees working to violate the free speech of entertainers.
Netflix has updated its culture memo to include a section called “artistic expression,” which appears to be a response to the criticism around Dave Chappelle’s specials. https://t.co/yRjd89Xwvq pic.twitter.com/flsvMNYDvP
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) May 12, 2022
According to Variety, Netflix is sending an update to its employee corporate culture that directly warns employees not to organize to thwart free speech.
In its document called “Netflix Culture — Seeking Excellence,” the streamer directly addresses “artistic expression.” The company adds that going forward, it will not “censor specific artists or voices” even if employees say the content “harmful.” The document adds, “If you’d find it hard to support our content breadth, Netflix may not be the best place for you.”
That is a far cry from placating radical employees seeking to cancel the company’s programing.
“Entertaining the world is an amazing opportunity and also a challenge because viewers have very different tastes and points of view. So, we offer a wide variety of TV shows and movies, some of which can be provocative,” the documents says. “To help members make informed choices about what to watch, we offer ratings, content warnings and easy to use parental controls.”
“Not everyone will like — or agree with — everything on our service,” the newly added section reads. “While every title is different, we approach them based on the same set of principles: we support the artistic expression of the creators we choose to work with; we program for a diversity of audiences and tastes; and we let viewers decide what’s appropriate for them, versus having Netflix censor specific artists or voices.”
“As employees we support the principle that Netflix offers a diversity of stories, even if we find some titles counter to our own personal values,” the sections continues. “Depending on your role, you may need to work on titles you perceive to be harmful. If you’d find it hard to support our content breadth, Netflix may not be the best place for you.”
The streamer did note that they do comport with government censorship laws where applicable.
Last October, the company also fired one of the instigators of the internal protests. The employee was fired supposedly for leaking internal metrics about how much Netflix paid for Chappelle’s comedy special, The Verge reported.
Netflix, of course, has a long history of pushing extremist, left-wing projects.
In 2019, the online entertainment giant aired a movie that portrayed Jesus Christ as a homosexual involved in a same sex relationship.
That same year the company signed onto the boycott efforts against North Carolina after the state passed its HB2 bathroom bill that restricted citizens using government facilities to using bathrooms only that correspond to their birth gender.
In 2020, the streamer took criticism for adding a transgender character to children’s series, “The Baby-Sitters Club.”
Also, Parents were outraged back in 2020 when Netflix approved the airing of the movie Cuties that sexualized preteen girls, and the streaming service saw a massive spike in cancellations during the backlash.
Regardless, it appears that Netflix may be coming to realize that it cannot allow its most extreme employees to dictate what the company does.
This post originally appeared at Western Journal.
Tags: Commentary Hollywood Netflix Woke
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