Netflix has been officially Bud Light-ed! Do you remember how shares of the top beer brand tanked after an advertising campaign featuring a transgender influencer? The move had angered US conservatives! Now, it’s the Netflix which is bearing the brunt of wading into politics and diversity, equity and inclusion bull shit!
There has been a bloodbath in Netflix stocks over the past few days. The reason? Its co-founder and chairman, Reed Hastings, endorsed Kamala Harris for president and donated millions to her campaign.
Guess what! Americans are now fast cancelling their Netflix subscriptions! The rate of cancellations – churn in industry parlance – nearly tripled in the US after his endorsement, according to the researcher Antenna. The streaming giant has the lowest churn in the industry.
Customers in the US canceled Netflix at a higher rate in July — 2.8% — than any month since February. But the five-day period after Hastings’ endorsement was unusual, even for July.
Make no mistake, Hastings is a long time Democratic ally. On July 22nd, he made a post on X, endorsing Kamala Harris for presidency. The next day, he donated $7 million to a pro-Harris super PAC. Shortly after Hastings’ endorsement, fans of Donald Trump began urging people to drop the service. Some posted photos showing they had closed their accounts alongside the hashtag #CancelNetflix. Three days later after the donation became public, July 26, was the single worst day for Netflix cancellations this year.
Not just Netflix founders but the company’s employees also harbour political bias against Conservatives.
US billionaire Elon Musk recently shared on X how 100% of donations from Netflix employees favored the Democratic Party.
While sharing the image, Musk said, “Donations by Netflix employees could not be more lopsided in favor of the Democratic Party (~100%).”
Some report also claim that Harris has also gained backing from giants like Google and OpenAI.
The report indicates that executives from Google, Netflix, and OpenAI are organising a fundraiser for Harris.
The substantial backing from the tech sector might be a strategic counter to GOP nominee Donald Trump’s endorsements from major tech figures, such as Elon Musk of Tesla and SpaceX.
There have been allegations of Google favouring Kamala Harris by manipulating search results.
Earlier, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman expressed support for Kamala Harris the day Joe Biden announced his withdrawal.
The Big Tech is shitting bricks over the prospects of a Trump 2.0. Trump has vowed to take on Big tech too. Trump plans to go after Google, Facebook and Amazon once he comes to power. One expects he would come to office telling the antitrust people to ‘keep up the good work’ in these big cases.
Trump has even threatened to put Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in jail after accusing him of committing election fraud.
Trump said on July 9, “All I can say is that if I’m elected President, we will pursue Election Fraudsters at levels never seen before, and they will be sent to prison for long periods of time.”
Trump added: “We already know who you are. DON’T DO IT! ZUCKERBUCKS, be careful!”
Few days later, Meta announced it was removing all restrictions and penalties it had imposed on Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts. So cute!