A report from The Verge highlights the questionable Netflix practices to get out “well spared” from the crises caused by controversial content, be they series or movies. Information emerges in the middle of the case The Closer, the series led by Dave Chappelle that has been marked as transphobic by a series of comments that the comedian himself expressed in said production. However, Netflix’s reaction has been practically nil.
The aforementioned medium indicates that, when Netflix went through the crisis related to Cuties, who was accused of sexualizing minors, used its algorithm to remove the movie from searches and leave it out of any recommendation list or future releases. In this way, fewer people would have the possibility to see it and it would be possible to reduce the conversation about it.
Interestingly, an editorial team warned that Cuties, whose distribution rights were acquired by Netflix, could generate uncomfortable reactions for showing minors in “provocative dance scenes” and for doing “crotch close-ups.” The problem did not end here. The synopsis in Spanish translated “twerking” as “sensual dance”, referring to the story of an 11-year-old girl who was “fascinated” with said dance style. In addition, Netflix was commissioned to design a poster that many considered provocative and inappropriate.
Disgruntled Netflix employees
Of course, this whole situation generated discomfort among some employees of the platform, although certainly not many were willing to raise their voices. Also, at that time they did not know who to turn to to show their discontent over Cuties, without forgetting that the premiere took place in the middle of a pandemic and remote work made collaboration difficult, he adds The Verge.
Despite the obvious problems to come, Netflix gave the green light to the marketing campaign of Cuties in August 2020. The “culture of cancellation” was immediate, although it came from an unexpected participant in this story: the American right. Right-wing media outlets, including believers in QAnon’s (pro-Trump) conspiracy theories, charged Netflix. Maïmouna Doucouré, director of Cuties, was the victim of harassment and received death threats on social media.
A late reaction
Initially, Netflix didn’t show too much concern, then Cuties it was not an original production. The downside is that not all audiences distinguish between an original film and another for which only its distribution rights are owned. It was until then that the streaming giant raised the alarm bells and acted accordingly. The first step was to modify the controversial synopsis and poster, followed by offering a Sorry in social networks.
Faced with the late response, and with an evident crisis underway, Netflix chose to manually alter the operation of the algorithm to “hide” Cuties from the catalog. An internal document reveals that the goal was to “minimize coverage” of the dam on the poster theme and, most importantly, prevent people from thinking that the feature film was removed from the platform. The latter could be seen as a negative reaction.
The scandal reached the customer service team, which received tens of thousands of complaint messages. Also, company employees were harassed by QAnon supporters. The only good news is that Netflix, apparently, was aware of the seriousness of the matter and did changes to avoid repeating. We say “apparently” because now they are dealing with the controversy generated by The Closer, barely a year after what happened with Cuties…