Elon Musk, a self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist,” has begun an effort to encourage 227 million followers on X, the social media platform he manages, to cancel Netflix.
Over the past three days, the conservative billionaire has reposted a call to cancel Netflix. The world’s wealthiest mask, with a net worth of around $500 billion, said it had cancelled its Netflix service. And he tells everyone else to listen to him.
“Cancel Netflix for Netflix’s health,” Musk wrote on October 1, citing another user’s meme portraying Netflix’s “Transgender Woke Agenda” as a Trojan horse labelled “Your Child.”
Musk’s anti-Netflix efforts began on Tuesday. Musk posted “This isn’t OK” by quoting Libs from Tiktok’s face right-wing activist account in a clip on Netflix’s “Dead End: Paranormal Park.” “The Netflix show Dead End Paranormal Park is pushing pro-transgender people to kids. The show is promoted for 7-year-olds,” Tiktok’s Libs mentions Netflix’s TV-Y7 rating. This means that the show is suitable for viewers age 7 and up. (Netflix cancelled “Dead End: Paranormal Park” two seasons later, but it’s not promoting the show now.)
Since then, Musk has reposted comments calling the Protran theme on other kids’ shows on Netflix, such as “Coco Melon” and “Babysitters Club.” He also supported Netflix’s claims of anti-white employment bias and criticised Democrats’ donations by company executives.
Netflix declined to comment on Musk’s campaign. With Netflix no longer reporting subscriber numbers quarterly, it can be difficult to quantify the impact of musk-driven boycotts.
On Thursday, Musk commented, “It’s not just that transgender propaganda is quietly hiding in the Netflix background, it’s not just an aggressive push to users,” writing “True,” citing users linking to Tudum’s article on Netflix’s Tudum.
Musk also commented “💯” in response to a post from conservative podcaster Benny Johnson.
On Wednesday, Musk reposted users’ “devil” reactions to Ian Miles Chung’s post.
Musk also reposted a claim by Tiktok’s Libs that in 2024 100% of political donations from Netflix employees went to the Democrats. He then responded to an account post about Netflix’s 2023 Diversity and Inclusion Report, commenting, “Cancel Netflix.”
The mask has a transgender child, daughter Vivienne Wilson, who changed her name and gender in 2022. In an interview last July, Musk said “I essentially lost my son,” and that he was “deceived” to approve Vivian’s gender-affirming care. According to Musk, she was “dead and killed by a woken mind virus.” In a series of posts about Meta’s threads in response to her father’s comments about her, Vivian Wilson said, “He simply wasn’t there so I don’t know what I was like as a child.
Musk’s anti-Netrix Drive supporters include conservative actor and comedian Rob Schneider. He added in X’s post “@elonmusk/dear @elonmusk/Thank you for confronting the evil trans real estate programming of netflix and Disney kids.”
But not everyone is rooting for Musk. “This guy has cancelled the most reactionary and most culture-loving bitch on the internet because he calls himself “free speech,” wrote Tommy Vietor, co-founder of progressive media’s crooked media and co-host of “Pod Save America,” on X on Wednesday.
Netflix has previously been the target of boycotts by conservatives. In 2020, a backlash over the Netflix film “Cuties” showed that minor actresses performed highly sexual dance routines and portrayed them in other adult situations, leading to a huge surge in cancellations for US customers, but a few days later the trend disappeared. (After the company’s licensing agreement with the title last year expired, “Cuties” is no longer available on Netflix.)
Apart from that, last month’s ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel suspension caused many Disney+ and Full users to cancel (or vow to cancel) his streaming subscription for his comments about the Magazine Supporter seeking to score political points from the murder of Charlie Kirk. Disney had revived Kimmel’s show as of September 23rd.
Netflix, a well-known cultural memo, entitled “Artistic Expression,” states section titled “Expression is important. Our members come from a variety of backgrounds and cultures and want to see the different stories and people on screen. “We support the artistic expression of creators we choose to work with,” and “as employees, whether we support these principles or against our personal values.”
In 2021, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos defended comedian Dave Chappelle after Chappelle was slammed for his anti-trance comments on Netflix Stand-Up Special “The Closer.” Sarandos also defended Netflix’s decision to order three specials from comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who received no jokes about Puerto Ricans at Trump’s rally last year.
But the company and its executives have been silent so far in the escalating “cancel Netflix” campaign Musk launched.
